are wiper motors difficult to rebuild?

It depends on what is wrong. If its just worn brushes then its pretty easy to rebuild. But if the windings are fried and you have to rewind with new wire, that could take a while.

easy to rebuild.

could take a while.

you can rewind a motor by hand? Doesn't that at least require a fixture?

Depends a lot on the motor design. For some AC motors you can rewind the field coil in place. For most smaller motors you have to build some kind of fixture, which can be as easy as cutting something out of plywood.

Doing the armature is a different story altogether and that can be done in place, but it is no fun at all and it's not worth the time to do it.

Audel's Handbook of Small Motors gives a lot of useful information on doing your own motor rewinding. It's actually kind of fun.

--scott

First you need to find out what needs to be rebuilt. Are the bushings loose?

I can understand that it is fun to learn to do something new, but I would think that the cost of the copper wire, the time involved, and the propensity to failure would offset the savings. A friendly wrecking yard is the amateur mechanic's best friend at times.

Or a local starter and alternator shop. A lot of those guys are willing to rebuild small DC motors for reasonable prices.

If you can still get parts at a wrecking yard, your car isn't old enough.

--scott

Probably true, in a lot of cases.

A '95 vintage is a prime candidate for junk yard parts round here. Not to sure of the supply of Lumina's in the trash heap but I would give it a shot. Getting a little harder if older than the '80's and usually harder to find parts for very current models. To prepare yourself ask if the yard has a cross reference guide. It will tell you what years and models of cars will have a wiper motor to fit your car. The yard I use charges me $1 to tell me this info. There are probably several models of Chevy made for somelike 10 years that use the same wiper motor. Or take the broken motor with you. If you do that make sure you have the part marked on your way in or they will not know you brought it with you and want to charge you for it when you leave.

disston