Windshield wipers acting up...

[The Warden]

Hello!

I just got back from a 300 mile trip (more details on that in a day or two), and the truck did quite well overall. I did run into one problem, though. It started raining during the trip, and I went to turn the windshield wipers on...and they didn't come on. I turned the knob to "fast", and they finally went...but they hesitated before starting each cycle. After that, the wipers continued to do this erratically...sometimes, they'd work normally, sometimes I would have the hesitating problem (every time this happened, they wouldn't work at all in LOW) with the time varying, and sometimes they simply wouldn't come on at all. Fortunately, the rain wasn't so bad that this became a safety issue, although it got close a couple of times. Fortunately, I got over the Grapevine before things got bad

I replaced the intermittent wiper module recently, but I can't imagine how that would affect this...does anyone have any ideas? I'm guessing the motor's on its way out, but I've never needed to mess with a wiper system before, so I know next to nothing about them...

Thanks!

 

[towcat]

tim-
the intermittent doohicky is acting up. I need to light a fire under BrianS to fix a few more.

 

[Magoo]

My 91 and my buddies 92 both have no intermitent working. Been putting off buying one since rainy season is nearing its end.

Towcat, is there someone who fixes these? I would rather support a forum user than the stealership. Let me know.

 

[hahn_rossman]

intermittant wiper fix

I had this problem when I first got my rig. The problem is poor solder joint inside the intermittant wiper module. The fix is not to replace it but to fix it!
It (the black box) comes apart relatively easily, then there is a printed circuit board with a bunch of resistors and capacitors soldered to it. If you look closely at it, you will notice that some of the solder points are a dull grey color, rather than shiny like the rest. These are "cold joints" and have high resistance intially, and also tend to fail from vibration. Get your soldering iron out and reheat these joints quickly and thoughly, and presto-chango it works again! I went ahead and resoldered all of the joints that looked at all suspicious. This fix has lasted for six years so far, and I anticipatre that it is permenent. Get in there!

 

[OkieGringo]

Been there, done that, got a new ww motor. Dead spot on motor armature or plastic gear stripped. OG