attention to you mechanically inclined people! help please!

[RidinHeifer]

91 s10 wipers and washer are not working.  Fuse is fine, I opened up the motor circuit and it is fine.  Tried jiggling the wires that got to the motor, no luck.  Tried to "jump start" them by trying to push/pull wipers, dads idea not mine.  Nothing has them going.  Any ideas?? The wires looked intact from what I can see.  It is an all of the sudden thing...they were perfect last time I used them...about 2 weeks ago.  If anyone has any ideas or has dealt with it before, I'd sure like hear what to do to fix it!

 

[cowman 52]

Ohm meter, disconnect wires to motor, touch to posts on ohm meter, if no continuity, bad motor, if have continuity, has to be no power to motor, hook wires from switch to meter, set meter switch to voltage and turn on truck switch, if you have voltage, check wires With ohm meter, it will tell you if wire is broken. Hard to do via text but you wil figure it out

 

[RidinHeifer]

Well, the one thing I don't have...and it makes sense, I took a wiring class in h.s. so I didn't have to take p.e. 
Do you know how to get to the switch wires(assuming you are talking about in cab)?  Surely I can find a meter to borrow. Thanks!

 

[cowman 52]

Ohm meter I think is 12 bucks at Wally world, it will keep and get used a lot

 

[nate53]

Check to see if 12 D.C. volts are going to motor first (at connector under hood).  If there isn't any problem is before connection (wiper switch, fuse, wires) and if there is problem is after connection (wiper motor, ground).  Without a good ground power is useless.  Analog multimeter's (ohmmeter) are cheap like Cowman said.  Good luck.

 

[Mueller Show Cattle]

Like the others says, you can trouble shoot the problem fast with a volt multimeter. The first thing I would do is pop the hood and turn on the switch to the windshield wipers and see if the motor is getting the 12 volts to the motor terminals. If it is then you know it is a motor problem. If there is not then there could be multiple different problems (Bad switch, bad ground, broke wire) all which a multimeter will help you trouble shoot, good luck.

 

[RidinHeifer]

I had found a wire grounded to the firewall that was cut, but it looked liked it had been that way for quite a while.  It was kinda back behind the motor, but I couldn't find the other end of anywhere.  I will run to the money trap and test the wires.  my dad was waiting on a call back from an ex -gm mechanic, but I haven't heard anything from him yet.  Thanks for the help guys!  I will post what I find with the meter

 

[cowman 52]

Any make, model, if you are like the rest of us and have to do your own mechanic work,  O'reillys, auto zone and others have a chiltons manual, shows you everything about your vehicle, with pictures, 
Best investment you will ever make.
It will have the wiring diagrams complete with color codes to trace wiring problems
Also testing procedures from a to z

 

[ROMAX]

Had a 95 chev PU the wiper motor wouldnt work ,hit it with a hammer, away it went,after a year i got tired of doing it so broke down and bought a new wiper motor

 

[RidinHeifer]

Well apparently my post with the test stuff didn't go through, anyways...I was getting readings on ohms, but they weren't enough to make the meter beep like the manual said.  I only had continuity over 2 combinations of the wires though. Voltage wise, I had anywhere from 97-350 readings on the purple wire, but that was it.
The mechanic got back to us and said he was 99% sure it is the control board, so I am pricing those right now.  I'm will probably end up getting the whole motor as long as they are certain it comes with the panel since so far there's a $10 difference between the board and the motor.  If that doesn't do it, my landlord said she'd get her mechanic friend to help me out one night.  I will probably invest in a manual since dad's 8 hours away and the guys that live in the other apartment are well, city boys LOL...
I did try hitting with a hammer, but that didn't work either...and after trying to get them started going by hand, they are in the vertical position now...didn't want to break the arms to get it back down.