Wiper Grinding??

Oh boy here we go with the wipers... but this one i haven't seen before in the forums.. My wife was driving the 97 Grand Caravan and all the sudden the whipers stopped working. So She got it home and turned onthe wipers only to hear a grinding sound.. so she stopped and called me.

Heres what happens.. you turn on the wipers and there is a grinding from under the cowl.. if you lift up on the wipers they do a single up and down motion with no problem. When it comes time for the next up and down motion it grinds again until you pull up on the wiper arm.. So is this a wiper motor problem? or something else? Please its rather important we get to the bottom of this quick as its rainy season heh..

Thanks again all!

The wipers are interconnected to the motor thru linkage (under the grate/cowl). One possibility would be that this linkage is jammed (perhaps leaves/debris), causing the motor to bind up and grind. The other possibility is the motor itself is bad.