99 Tacoma Wiper Motor Problem

While driving in heavy sleet and snow recently, my wipers suddenly
stopped in the down position. Upon closer inspection, I found they had
actually gone down past the windshield and are resting on the plastic
vented piece between the hood and windshield.
With the wipers turned on, I can manually move them back and forth quite
easily, but they do not move by themselves. After a couple of minutes,
it's like the motor finally kicks in, and abruptly lowers the wipers
back down past the windshield. Thawing the truck out completely and
cleaning all ice from the area has had no effect. Any help would be
appreciated.

On Sat, 20 Jan 2007 12:22:44 -0600, roadhunter wrote:

> While driving in heavy sleet and snow recently, my wipers suddenly
> stopped in the down position. Upon closer inspection, I found they had
> actually gone down past the windshield and are resting on the plastic
> vented piece between the hood and windshield.
> With the wipers turned on, I can manually move them back and forth quite
> easily, but they do not move by themselves. After a couple of minutes,
> it's like the motor finally kicks in, and abruptly lowers the wipers
> back down past the windshield. Thawing the truck out completely and
> cleaning all ice from the area has had no effect. Any help would be
> appreciated.

It sounds as though you've stripped the shaft between the wiper motor and
linkage.

I'm not directly familiar with this assembly as I've never had
occasion to disassemble the one in my own Tacoma, but some manufacturers
design a "fail point" here to keep from cooking the wiper motor or
damaging the linkage should the wipers be forced to cope with a heavier
snow and ice load than designed.
--
Mike Harris
Austin TX