Silly question, my wipers seem to quit, and I can't seem to locate anything along the lines of a fuse for the wipers. Am I blind?
I looked in the tech thread, and the fuse chart doesn't show any wiper/washer fuse. I tested all fuses in the fusebox, all seem to test good (testlight, power at both sides).
Truck had standard wipers, I swapped in intermitant switch/governor, and they worked fine. (yes, the ground wire is grounded)
No action from the wipers in any position of the switch, in the intermittant setting, I can hear the governor clicking, but nothing happens. Washer works.
Checking for power at the motor connector (still plugged into motor) I am getting power to all 4 wires.

Am I looking at a bad wiper motor? Everything seems to point towards this. Considering the age of the truck, it wouldn't surprise me. Given they worked fine last time I needed them, right up till the linkage fell off the motor arm, it would sorta shock me.

Only test I haven't tried yet (due to darkness) is plugging in the original non-intermittant switch. Just can't see under the dash well enough to unplug the harness from the governor......

 

Is your key on? Sorry, couldn't help myself

 

D'OH! Knew I was forgetting something..... LOL.


Yes, the key was on, the engine was even running during part of my testing.

 

Disconnect the plug from the motor, and find on the motor the connectors associated with:

White == low speed
Dark Blue/Orange stripe == high speed
Black/Pink stripe == ground

Connect an ohm meter across ground and either of the other two and measure the resistance.
A reading of 1 ohm (or an analog meter that doesn't move) == burned-out motor.

 

Eh, no volt/ohm meter handy. Guess I'll hafta check the plug for power at the correct terminals after unplugging it. I ran out of daylight today for diagnosing the issue. It was almost dark when I realized it was drizzling, and simply wanted to wipe off the dust that had settled into the dew over the last week or so.

I'm really thinking the motor has gone **** up. Prolly should have checked it out a little better when I put the linkage back together. I don't think I have even turned on the wipers since that happened......

 

Try turning your wipers on and gently assisting the wiper in it's sweep to see if it goes. If no luck, try softly tapping it with a rubber mallet. You might have a bad brush in the motor.

 

Have already tried both with no luck. Been a bit cool and damp out, so I haven't messed with it today. Prolly get back to it later this week, when it warms back up. It's not like it's my only means of transportation.....

 

The wiper switch and circut is protected with a Circut breaker, just like the headlamp switch.

Wiper Switch Circut Breaker: 7 amp

If the wipers quit, and restart again, it could be the circut breaker triggering. Why or if it's triggering, will take some tests with a ohm meter to determine.

 

They worked, till the linkage fell off the motor arm. Put it back together, and never tried them till yesterday, and nothing except the governor clicking when the switch is turned to the intermittant side. Clicking varies depending on how far the **** is turned.
I'm really suspecting the 31 year old wiper motor has finally retired.

 

You may or may not need this info, but it can't hurt. I did a quick wiper motor tear down, which might help you out with yours (or help someone at some other point).

Tools you'll need: 1/4" wrench, 90 deg. pick, and a small file:


This motor came out of my '85 Bronco and it was intermittently (mostly not) working:


Here are the bolts you need to remove to get the elec. motor:


Separate the motor casing. This is what you'll be faced with:

Brushes and springs will go every which way upon moving the rotor and motor casing:


Rotor inside the casing (the rotor is held in by a very strong magnet):


Pull the rotor out of the casing (it won't come easy, but pull):
Rotor:


Magnet in casing:


Put the rotor and casing aside for now.

Here you can see the wear on one of the brushes:




Here is the same brush after filing it:


The brushes are pushed up against the rotor via spring tension. That's great, except when you're installing the brushes. Have no fear tho, here you can see where the copper wire is held in to keep them from flying out. I like to use the flat end (not the point) of a 90 deg. pick to gently push the wire into the holder:


In order to install the rotor the brushes need to be pushed in and held at this position:


Make sure the drive end is free of debris prior to installing.

Here you can see the rotor is installed, but the brushes are still in the install position (note the gap):


Remove the copper wiring out of the holder (90 deg. pick works great here) to allow the brushes to be pushed against the rotor. I like to reinsert the copper wire back into the holders when this is done, allowing enough slack for brush movement as it wears. Why do I do this? Because if I have to tear it back apart, I won't end up with the spaghetti mess of springs and brushes everywhere:


I also like to add a VERY small amount of grease to the end of the rotor shaft prior to installing the case:


Place the motor casing back on, wiggle it back and forth (twisting action) till it drops to the base. Line it up to where it was when removed and bolt it back in (don't forget your ground wire).

Lastly, I bench test using my jump pack. I usually let them run for a minute, but here's a quick video.

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SdNMGOZD1E8?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="390">

Hope this helps someone out!

 

Dude! That's an excellent write up, and fantastic pics. I'll be disecting mine in a couple days, and I bet I can make it live again, unless the brushes are just plain wore out.
I was thinking about trying this anyways, and your post was exactly the info I wanted. I was even thinking "a little grease would be good on the bushings", just as I read that part.......


+ rep for that!

 

excellent post dohc.

 

I agree, I'll hafta extract that and put it into its own thread as a HOWTO if chump is cool with it

 

sucks I gotta spread the reps...

There are precious few on here worthy of them.

 

Excellent write up from dohc!

Rogue..if I read everything correctly, they worked until the arm came off right? If so, is it possible when you put it back on that it's now in a bind? I did exactly that once. The wiper arms were positioned at full bottom, if that makes sense, but the motor still wanted to go down a bit more before going back to the upswing. Hope that didn't confuse you I'm not too bright with the technical terms. My native language is hillbillish, very similar to the ever popular gibberish language