hey i'm new to the forum. After a severe ice storm i tried to use my wipers and they were still frozen in place. After being defrosted i tried them again and the wipers and wiper fluid dispensing action wouldn't work. i've checked the internal fuse and it looks good. i'm hoping i don't have to replace the wiper motor and pump assembly. how can i test the pump and wiper motor on my car? i do have a multi-meter. any other things i can try?

see if you have power to the fuse socket and see if there is more than one fuse
check the fuse with the meter sometimes you cant see the blow

If I had to guess, I would guess your wipers and fluid are still frozen. Do you have access to a heated garage?

With your multimeter, probe the connectors of each to determine which is the ground lead, and the other will be the 12V lead. With wiper switch in the on position, see if you can measure 12V on the harness connector. If you can't then it'* a problem before the motor. If you can then it is either the motor or a fouled connector. Same goes for the pump but you'll need a 2nd person to activate that while you measure.

To test the motors yourself you can use a fused jumper lead from the battery positive and non-fused from ground inserted into the motor power (input) socket. Do make sure it is fused for safety'* sake, though I don't know the right value, probably good enough to use a 10A or 15A fuse. You can also measure resistance across the motor socket contacts with it unplugged, should be a fairly low ohm measurement but not really really close to zero (less than 2 ohms) which would indicate a short.

If the wiper motor grounds itself through a mounting bolt instead of a ground wire then make sure that area isn't excessively corroded.