Drove home today in light rain. Sucks not having delay. Is it a switch and wiper motor to swap to a delay set up or is it a bit more involved? May want to swap it over on my 78 Olds Salon too
What all involved in swapping to DELAY wipers? 81 ElCamino
- Thread starter HAFROD
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Search on this site, lots of info. But up to '83 is called a negative switched system. Is your switch on the dash or column? You need a wiper motor with delay, and a wiper switch with delay, and if a column switch, depending on whether your column is tilt or not the switch is different. Look at the wiper switch harness under the column or dash. If there is an unused green wire, you are good to go for the swap. The green wire is for the delay.
I have a dash mount Monte delay wiper switch if that would help you. I understand they are hard to come by. I bought it hoping we could use it on my brother's 78 Z28. The delay switch for it is near unobtanium. If you end up needing it let me know, I'll sell it at my cost which I think was around $70.
Jared is right in saying the switch is getting hard to find...I'm finding that here. I had 3 or 4 here for the longest time...smoked them out pretty cheap compared to what you're into that one for. I haven't seen one in a wrecker car for quite some time now..
The first time I tried the delay system I had a non-tilt column and the switch was cheap and easy to get. When I wanted to upgrade to tilt I grabbed the last one they had on RockAuto when it went on sale as a closeouit. The delay switch for my '83, with a tilt column, was over $100 and I refused to go that high. I got it for around $45. I knew if I snoozed I would have to eat myself in the morning. But the rarest of the rare is the dash mounted delay switch for '78 to '81.
Even worse is when Pontiac made 2 different switches in those years (plug arrangement), so '78-'79 had one and '80-'81 had another. The latter are running about $200 NOS on eBay. And of course mine is flakey
of course. Not like I'm using it or anything. I'm running into a similar problem with the stalk switch for this '87. Seriously how many different ones are out there and I have no idea which one I actually need
Well, get ready. '84 and up is a completely different system. GM changed to a positive switched system where the wiper switch is hot and the motor is grounded. Previously, the wiper motor was hot and the switch was the ground. That's why the old wire harness had a black ground wire and green is still for the delay. So, for you '84 and up there are still 4 switches- non delay, non tilt- delay, non tilt- non delay, tilt- delay, tilt. Fun, huh?
Post what you need on here. I have scored lots of great stuff from these guys including a dash mounted delay switch. Then there's Ebay, as long as you know exactly what you are looking for, as in part numbers. Then there is another approach. You can convert over to the much more attainable positive ground system. What you do is get a wiper motor and switch with delay, but for an '84 and up model. Then you rewire for that system. Your system has the motor hot and the switch is ground, the newer system has the switch hot and the motor is grounded. The same color wires are used almost. If you compare the old and new wiring diagrams you will see what I mean. Longroof79 did it. Jack said the motor was not a perfect bolt on swap, but he made it work.
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