Strange Wiper Problem

[BrdWAtti2d]

Guys I have this strange problem with my wipers. A couple months ago the wipers would not go into the park position, they would stay up in the middle of the windshield when turned off. So, I pulled the motor and found the spring that pops out the parking tab in the transmission had broken. I go down to the local pick-a-part and grab a motor out of a 94-97 Camaro. Here's were the weird part comes in. The wiper will now park but when the old motor was working properly the wipers would go a couple inches from the park postion, stop and then slowly go the rest of the way to park. They don't do this anymore, they just stop the couple inches from park. So I had to reinstall the wiper arms a little high so they don't bang into the cowling when turned on. Is there some special way to install these motors or did I just get a bum motor?

[BrdWAtti2d]

Anyone, Bueller?

[Al 96 Ram Air T/A]

Sorry man...I have no idea. Never heard of this happening.

[darkhorsecustoms]

Pretty interesting issue. Sounds like you might have got a bad motor. In the motor there is an "end of sweep" switch and a "park" switch with relay. Copied from my FSM for my 94 "Park Position Operation": "When turned OFF from any position, the wipers complete the last sweet and park. When the wiper switch is in OFF, the wiper motor assembly has battery voltage applied to terminal "B" only, from CKT 143. When the end of sweep switch opens, the control circuit reverses the wiper motor which activates the external depressed park mechanism. The wiper motor continues to run until the park switch opens." Hope this helps at least a little bit.

[BrdWAtti2d]

Yea thanks, I had a feeling the control module might be fubar, anyone know if I could swap the old control module into the new motor, do they come off without damage?

[darkhorsecustoms]

Not 100% sure, but rockauto sells what they call a wiper motor cover that includes a circuit board, so I imagine it will come apart. They also sell reman motors for about $70 plus $10 core.

[BrdWAtti2d]

Thanks again, I'm gonna try pulling off the old control module this weekend. If I break it, no biggie the motor is toast anyway.

[Rob B (shoebox)]

I would swap the motor covers. That is the "brains" of the motor.

[formula_gramps]

Brd,

You can do it. I have swapped out the circuit board on mine. Pretty much no sweat to do. You do have to re-seal the cover with silicone.

As I recall, the only thing you need to be really careful of, is when removing the motor, the way it attaches to the linkage is by those cheesy plastic ball and socket joints. They actually sell special tools for this, (very expensive!), but you can use a thin open end wrench to wedge them apart and then a set of channel locks and a rag to press them back together.

Have you seen where they buried that sucker yet? .......LOL.

Good luck!

[BrdWAtti2d]

Oh yea, I have the old one sitting in my bench. Had the cover off the old one to check out what was wrong with it when I discovered the problem with the wiper transmission. Then I just stuck it under the bench and went off to the u-pull-it. Thanks for the response gents!

[BrdWAtti2d]

Ohhh now I get it. I had that cover off before but I forgot what it was all about. I just pulled the cover off the control module on the old motor and now I realize the circuit board is part of the cover. Easy swap over, duh. We'll pull the one in the car this weekend and swap control circuits. Hopefully that will be the end of it.

Edit: Swapped out the cover and control circuit. Everything is working as it should. Thanks for all the suggestions. Why does it seem like everything we do on these cars we have to do at least twice? I can now swap out the wiper motor faster than a NASCAR pit crew on a green flag stop at Talladega.