Front Windshield Wiper Motor

My front windshield wiper motor is not working. The motor became slow and sluggish and then died.

Can anyone point me to where the wiper motor is in the engine compartment? I am going to replace it with an aftermarket Cardone unit. Thanks.

My front windshield wiper motor is not working. The motor became slow and sluggish and then died.

Can anyone point me to where the wiper motor is in the engine compartment? I am going to replace it with an aftermarket Cardone unit. Thanks. You have not mentionned the year model of your van. This will apply to 99-2003. You have to remove the wiper arms, the top cowl vent panel ( a few snaps at the base of the windshield plus 4 plastic screws)
then disconnect the wiper motor ( the plug is at the driver side, just below the cowl vent panel) unscrew all the little bolts ( 8 or 10 if I can remember)retaining the cowl vent panel itself to the body, and lift it. The wiper motor is held on this cowl vent panel.

Thanks for the information. My Windstar is a 2000 so your information is what I needed. I'm going to do the work this week and will let you know how it goes.

I replaced the front windshield wiper motor on my 2000 Windstar this weekend. Catvents information above was very helpful.

There were a few places where I got stuck, but nothing major.

1. Once you take off the wiper arms which are held on by a 15 mm nut they may may not come off easily. I found that if you move the arms to the 90 degree position and wiggle them a bit they will come off.

2. The plastic clips that hold down the top plastic cowl tightly to the windshield are brittle so take care when pulling them apart. You can't see them so go easy. Replacement clips can be purchased.

3. The part that required the most force to take apart is where the wiper arm mechanism (scissor arms that move the wipers) attaches to the wiper motor. The screw holding the two together comes out easily enough but the shaft from the motor which fits into the wiper arm mechanism is hammered in pretty tightly. A few good taps with a hammer and screwdriver should knock these apart. When attaching the new wiper motor do NOT hit the new wiper motor too hard with a hammer or other object because the motor has some ceramic bits in it that could shatter and ruin the motor.

4. When separating the wiper motor and wiper arm mechanism note the orientation of the wiper arm mechanism. You'll need it to be in the same position when you install the new wiper motor. If you put it in backwards your wipers will be 180 degrees out of synch so they will stop in the full up position when you turn off your wipers. Yes, I found out the hard way.

Overall it took me 3 hours from start to finish. If I have to do it again it should take less than half that time.

The tools used were metric sockets and wrenches 7 mm - 15 mm, a philips head screwdriver and a hammer.

The Cardone unit I purchased from my local parts store was a remanufactured Ford unit.

Great. I have indicated a very general information for removing the wiper motor without giving you the small details but you did it and your own informations will be a good reference for other peoples on this list. I had also some bad stories with the cowl vent panel removals in the past, like broken plastic clips, and also a few rusted ( and seized) littles bolts retaining the panel to cowl dash, fortunaltly available from Ford.