AzStar Posted August 3, 2009 Report Share Posted August 3, 2009 (edited) I did the remove the motor and clean the contacts plate and the gear surface. Didn't remedy my problem. Wipers park where they feel like it... and also when in intermittant they stop all over the place. Is there another point of "adjustment"? Edited August 8, 2009 by AzStar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ucw458 Posted August 3, 2009 Report Share Posted August 3, 2009 The contacts under that metal plate are responsible for parking the wipers. If they don't make a good electrical connections the wipers will not park. I suggest you clean it again. Check to see if those contacts are bent too far and preventing a connection. You can bend them out a little bit but no more than 1/8th". Also you need to lube them. I don't suggest dielectric grease because when it gets hot it melts away. Use that green disk brake caliper grease. It's sold in a small tube. It wont melt away and will help make a good connection. I've used disk brake caliper grease for many years with great results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Szester Posted August 3, 2009 Report Share Posted August 3, 2009 What ucw said. I had to do this recently, seems to take care of the problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzStar Posted August 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2009 I'll give it another shot... Thanks lads! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikec Posted August 4, 2009 Report Share Posted August 4, 2009 Those contacts connect the motor wires to the body of the wiper assembly... which in turn should be grounded to the body of the car. If the motor assembly doesn't have good electrical contact with the car body though it acts like those switches are bad. As a quickie test, hook a wire to the motor body and to the battery "-" post or some other solid ground and see if that helps. If so, fix the external ground... if not, re-do the switches. mike c. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzStar Posted August 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2009 Those contacts connect the motor wires to the body of the wiper assembly... which in turn should be grounded to the body of the car. If the motor assembly doesn't have good electrical contact with the car body though it acts like those switches are bad. As a quickie test, hook a wire to the motor body and to the battery "-" post or some other solid ground and see if that helps. If so, fix the external ground... if not, re-do the switches. mike c. Mike, You nailed it here! As soon as I grounded it, it worked.... So my question is, how does it "normally" ground? Obviously it appears I can fix this just by adding a ground wire to the external case, but if I can sort out how to fix the OEM ground I would like to do that. Thanks in advance, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbrad511 Posted August 8, 2009 Report Share Posted August 8, 2009 I ran a small jumper wire from my wiper motor to the body a long time ago. Still works just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikec Posted August 8, 2009 Report Share Posted August 8, 2009 On my car, the upper/center mounting screw has a metal "U" shaped clip to complete the ground: the clip fits around the rubber washer/vibration isolator, touching the metal frame of the wiper assembly on one side, and the backside of the screw head on the other... thus connecting the "ground screw" to the frame, completing the circuit. I've seen regular ground wires attached to the small gearbox screw closest to the hood hinge as well - on 87s particularly. mike c. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzStar Posted August 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2009 On my car, the upper/center mounting screw has a metal "U" shaped clip to complete the ground: the clip fits around the rubber washer/vibration isolator, touching the metal frame of the wiper assembly on one side, and the backside of the screw head on the other... thus connecting the "ground screw" to the frame, completing the circuit. I've seen regular ground wires attached to the small gearbox screw closest to the hood hinge as well - on 87s particularly. mike c. HA! Good one... Mine has that clip... but I think a PO painted it and of course there is the issue. I already went ahead and made gound wire and went from the lower left mounting bolt to one of the screws on the gear cover on the wiper. Everything works fine now. Again thanks to all.... Now I need to move along to the rear wiper. Don't know it doesn't work either. I will need to see if the maint manuals call out the fuse for the rear wiper as I don't have an owners manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M Code Posted August 8, 2009 Report Share Posted August 8, 2009 Now I need to move along to the rear wiper. Don't know it doesn't work either. I will need to see if the maint manuals call out the fuse for the rear wiper as I don't have an owners manual. If the rear wiper doesn't work... Often the problem are the copper contacts within the struts.. These tend to expand loosing their tension to make contact. A qwik test is turn ON the rear wiper using a test lite or voltmeter check to see if you have voltage @ the lower copper contact.. If yes, klen and titen down the contacts... Just my $0.025.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vbrad511 Posted August 8, 2009 Report Share Posted August 8, 2009 HA! Good one... Mine has that clip... but I think a PO painted it and of course there is the issue. I already went ahead and made gound wire and went from the lower left mounting bolt to one of the screws on the gear cover on the wiper. Everything works fine now. Again thanks to all.... Now I need to move along to the rear wiper. Don't know it doesn't work either. I will need to see if the maint manuals call out the fuse for the rear wiper as I don't have an owners manual. Look at your rear spoiler. Does the center section line up with the side pieces? Or is it sticking back a bit? If it's back you need to adjust the hinges. The contacts on the hatch struts depend on things being lined up correctly. There are two ways of doing it, and you'll need an extra set of hands to make it easier. You can pop the rear piece of headliner off, then one side at a time loosen the hinge nuts, have a helper push the hatch forward, tighten the nuts. That may help. On my car the glass in the hatch had slipped back because the rubber hinge bushings had given up (the part that attatches to the glass itself). If you take one side apart you'll see what I'm talking about. I fabbed up some thin rubber spacers and put them in place. Now my rear wiper, brake light, and rear defrost (I hope) all work fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UlrichWolf Posted August 9, 2009 Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 (edited) This will sound silly, but one of my first checks on a non-op rear wiper motor is to simply press the brake pedal, and watch the rear defrost button. If the button lights up when you press the brake, the wiper motor has shorted, and will have to be replaced. Tim Edited August 9, 2009 by UlrichWolf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AzStar Posted August 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2009 Thanks to all... this has been a very productive day. The problem with the rear wiper was just what you guys said it would be. I didn't even bother to get out the OHM Meter, I just cleaned the strut contacts, and since I already had the interior parts pulled for other work I was doing, adjusted the hatch as best as I could (still can't get the passenger side lined up perfectly). VOILA, the wiper works just fine! So all the wipers work. Now on to bigger and better things! Thanks again lads! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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