How to replace 86 suburban k20 wiper motor?

Maintenance/Repairs
1

Anyone have a link to a tutorial on how to replace the wiper motor on a 1986 suburban k20?

Got the replacement motor and it looks about the same as the original. Tested the circuits going to the old one and they’re good, got the wipers and the metal grill off, but underneath looks totally different from the only YouTube tutorial I could find. Looks like they changed the chassis a bit between 86 and the 88 seen in the video, unless I’m missing something? There’s no big open space to reach the mechanical linkages as seen in the tutorial, only a small and big rectangular hole in the metal, both too far from the linkages to see anything, much less get a wrench in there. Am i supposed to have a special wrench and do everything by feel or with an endoscope? Should I just angle-grinder out an access hole and bondo it back afterwards?? Or is it expected to take apart the entire firewall to get to this thing???

Also, in the video, the replacement has the motor side arm of the wiper transmission included, mine does not. I guess that’s good news because I only need to remove the nut on the wiper motors axle, right? Or am I missing a part I should have?

I’d rather have a written tutorial with images than another video, but I’ll take anything I can get at this point. Thank you!

Oh, and if anyone knows a trick to partially removing the hood, that would make this at least somewhat easier… Looks like the rear most four bolts on the hood could come off and it could just pivot backwards without much trouble, but it’s a heavy beast and I know those counterbalance springs back a punch, so I don’t want to create an even bigger problem just trying to get a little more elbow room for the original fix.

2

The wipers must be in the park position.

Reach down thru the rectangular hole in the plastic plenum and loosen the wiper drive rod attaching screws.

Remove the drive rod from the wiper motor crankshaft.

Remove the wiper motor.

Tester

3

Thanks, tester. Wipers were in the usual parked position when i took them off, and the old motor seems pretty frozen, so im not worried about the rest of the contraption moving from that position, certainly at least until I can disconnect the old motor.

Just to clarify, though: youre saying remove the wiper’s drive rod from the motor’s crankshaft first, rather than remove the crankshaft from the motor? Presumably then take the motor out, then remove the crankshaft from the motor once it’s out (like I said, the new motor didn’t come with a new crankshaft) and put the original crankshaft on the new motor, then install the new motor into place, then reattach the drive rod to the old crankshaft which is now on the installed new motor. Do I have that right? Sounds like the crankshaft will fit through the hole the motor is mounted on, correct?

Thanks again!