I obtained a wiper motor/trans unit from a recycler - supposed to be a 94/5 unit, but when I got it home it appeared to be somewhat different from what was on my car. The gasket arrangement was different, and the housing for the wiper arm was different, and the drive motor itself was slightly different.

To make a long story short, it works fine. The biggest pita was taking the gasket off my old unit and putting it on the new unit. I'm talking about the gasket which covers the bottom of the windshied, then goes around the wiper blade base, and continues on across the windshield. This is all one big gasket. The junkyard unit appears to have had a two piece gasket, but it had been removed on the unit so I'm not sure.

I brought the old wiper unit inside to let everything warm up, and to clean the crud out of the channels in the gasket. The gasket is clamped to the wiper blade base with a stainless band clamp, which is basically not made to be reusable. Pry the end up and off and release the band. Now the gasket can be rotated, with some effort. To get it off, you just have to STRETCH it over the mounting arms of the transmission frame. It seems impossible that it will stretch that far, but it does. (don't try it if it's cold!) Use something to help lever it off. Likewise, when putting it on the new unit, it helps to have a lever to assist. I was able to use the band clamp again by bending it back in shape and carefully hooking the end in place.

Put it back in the car and did a test run before buttoning everything back up, and yeah! I've got a decent wiper again! There's always the risk that the junkyard unit is worse than what you already have!

The motor on the old unit had some sort of capacitor or trap or something bridged across the + and - leads, and the junkyard unit had no such gizmo, but everything seems to work normally. Maybe for radio interference or something? I dunno...

Rgds,
Chris W.
'95 E300D with new wiper life