1996 Chevy Van G30 – wipers and heat

I live in the US. There are two issues with the van that my friend and I are having issues figuring out. First, the wipers don’t move. We took the vent panel off to look at the mechanism that moves the arms (transmission?) and it was a little rusty but mostly, it was bent up. My friend straightened them out a little bit, as much as he could without taking them out, and we went to try them again. They still didn’t move but now there’s a strange noise. I’m going to try to use my phone to get videos later if these road work guys go on lunch or quit during daylight hours.

The second issue is that the heat in the van doesn’t come on. There’s not even air blowing out of it. We checked the coolant levels and they were fine, and I tried to follow the instructions in Eric’s video for purging any air. There don’t appear to be any visible leaks. Nothing under the van seems wet or slimy or anything. We’re not sure how to proceed with figuring out what is wrong.

In both cases I’m suspecting we need some new parts. With the wipers, I’m suspecting the motor has burned out, and possibly the switch to turn them on and off is bad. I’m also suspecting the blower motor for the heater is bad, or perhaps the controls aren’t working anymore. But I want to do any tests you all recommend for figuring out what’s wrong before I go ordering or pulling parts.

I don’t know if this information is necessary or not already apparent, but neither of us has a lot of experience fixing cars. I helped a friend rebuild a transmission once, and I’ve diagnosed issues with alternators and swapped them out a few times, but that’s the limit of my automotive repair experience really. My friend knows how to change tires and oil which is great because I physically can’t get down on the ground and back up anymore.

We just bought this van a couple of weeks ago from a friend and it’s fairly old so I’m not sure what the repair history is. It seems like the dash has been taken apart before and then possibly not put back together entirely correctly. The radio is completely gone but that isn’t a high-priority project. I need to get the van on the road so that I can see my son, who is in a group home due to behavioral issues. The wipers and making sure the coolant system is working seem pretty important toward making it road-worthy, and I haven’t found much in the way of videos or other instructions online for this kind of van. Anything you all have would be massively appreciated.