Wipers not working?

[Paul Bell]

I was having problems with my windshield wipers. It’s a strange system that uses a combination of grounds that controls park, low, high and squirt. The center terminal (as well as the squirter) gets constant power when the key is on. The motor case is grounded by the strap under one mounting screw. Without it, or “correct” grounding from the dash switch, trouble at the motor ensues.

I think my dash switch was bad. It get’s grounded through a mounting screw that goes through the dash ground strap. These plastic dashboards no longer hold the screws very tight anymore and if this ground is poor, iffy or bad, trouble at the motor ensues.

In my case, the motor actually released smoke.

I believed the switch to be bad. It’s like sixty bucks. When I needed it, nobody had it. The 1972 version is different. When I finally got a new one, I soldered a wire directly to it’s ground tab, which pokes out the back of the switch and contacts the frame. I grounded it to body steel. I don't fool around.

Ya wanna change the switch? DROP the dashboard. OR remove the seat, lap cooler and lower dash panel and lay under the dash and feel your way around-which is how I did it.

Then I got a reman unit from Pep Boys, online discount applied. What I learned from THIS transaction is that you must remove the three rubber mounts and motor arm BEFORE trading in your core.

The three terminals on the rebuilt unit loosely wiggled around. Again, the motor didn’t work. After I removed it, I saw the resistor behind the terminals broke from everything being loose.

Next, I ordered the ACDelco reman unit, number as per their website and Rock Auto’s website. The first thing I noticed is that it had the exact same stickers on it as the way cheaper Pep Boys unit. Hmm, from the same rebuilder?

This ACDelco unit had the terminal strip in the wrong spot, with an extra terminal and a loose wire sticking out of the motor AND from the guts. This motor is being returned to it’s sender.

I contacted our good friend Leo Konik at Koniks Klassiks. Of course, he knew the ACDelco unit is their generic part that’s actually for 1973 and newer cars.

Leo will be sending me a good original unit.

So, if your wiper motor has problems, don’t trade in your unit as a core. There are shops online that will rebuild your unit, which I wish I did.

[MC1of80]

It sucks you went through and are still going through that crap Paul. Thank you for the heads up though. You should have asked if anyone had any good wiper switches and motors, I have a few and closer than leo. Just saying.

[Rob Peters]

14 hours ago, Paul Bell said:

I was having problems with my windshield wipers. It’s a strange system that uses a combination of grounds that controls park, low, high and squirt. The center terminal (as well as the squirter) gets constant power when the key is on. The motor case is grounded by the strap under one mounting screw. Without it, or “correct” grounding from the dash switch, trouble at the motor ensues.

 

In my case, the motor actually released smoke.

When you let the smoke out of any electrical component they usually won't function any more and try as you might you can never get that smoke back into the component.

rob