Using a 3rd gen back wiper motor on 2nd gen

[Scruffy]

So after trying about five seized up 2nd gen wiper motors, not counting the handful of them that I snapped trying to pull them. I finally pulled a motor off a 2003. I'll show you how to get that working with our sprayer. Or at least chronicle my struggle.

 

So first, your wagon wiper is still factory like mine was it probably works as amazingly as using mud to wash your car. So first step to fix that is actually really simple, pop off the black plastic cover on the wiper arm, pull a 10mm nut, pull off your arm and toss a new one on. Easy. Unless you're like me and break it at the nut.

 

So now you have a bigger issue, now you need to pull a bloody wiper motor, and I'd like to thank Subaru engineering for leaving most of the seizable stuff open to the rain. But enough about that, lets get right into it. pulling everything apart is a piece of cake. The arm is held on with a 10mm nut, past that pull off the black plastic cap and you'll find another nut. There is a slight difference here between the 2nd and 3rd gens. (sorry no pictures of the deconstruction) But right off the 2nds have the sprayer is on the wiper mount, 3rd they moved that to the top and had it spray down. Back to nuts, on the 2nd gens the nut that holds the sealed mount is 22mm, 3rd gen for some reason is 23mm. Unbolt this and pop open your door, pull off the trim and remove the three 10mm bolts. The motor will now freely slide out.

Now, good news. Both have plugs that look like this.. Making it completely plug and play.

Okay, this is good, now the other/bad.

'03 left, '98 right

 

Threaded part is considerably bigger, meaning that you will need to modify your gasket/plastic sprayer from your 2G. the hole in the glass on the 3Gs are about half an inch smaller and to top it off, once bolted in it will not sit in the center of the hole in our 2nd gens. So the gasket off the thirds leave a space on top of the wiper, allowing a river to flow through.

It's a little hard to see from the pictures above, but the sprayer from the 98 is molded to fit the shaft of the 2nd gen motor, (gasp XD bear with me) and really should have taken more and better pictures of this process, but I was aggravated, so I just shot landmarks. thus I can't show you the bottom, But it's styled like that D pattern on both sides. /now I'm just confusing/

On to more fun stuff. So what you have to do is, carve out the flat edges on the inside and the top of your sprayer so that it's completely flush. The plastic is very soft, so it doesn't really take long at all. I was actually able to carve out most of the inside with a jack-knife but when the top part came I opted for my Dremel and a sandpaper disc. Try to drill towards the right and to the bottom a little, it will still fit if you don't, but I don't know how much plastic is between the side and the sprayer line.

You should have something like this.

Slap the nut on and tighten it until the rubber seal on the bottom of the seal is completely covering the hole in the glass. On mine it was exactly when the nut was flush with the motor.

Dump some water on it, check for leaks and test your sprayer. then you can toss the plastic cap from your 2nd gen on it.

Try out he wiper and grab your replacement wiper arm. I'm using one off a Honda Odyssey/Element from around 2008ish.

And an official Honda 10mm nut.

 

And..... Magic. That was a lot of work just for a clean back window. But there is is.

[Scruffy]

Idea for the wiper pulled from here, Where you can get part numbers and learn all kindsa fun stuff. http://www.sl-i.net/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=19616