Windshield Wipers WON'T shut off!

[Bonnewagon]

I was poking around on ebay and I see that the '80-'81 "B" body cars used the exact same switch but with some extra plastic for the headlight knob. Search "1980 wiper switch" and I think you could find something that you could make work.

 

[MalibuHacon]

huh i tried to search for the same and didn't find anything that looked the same apart from one Lemans, Grand prix switch for 230$

 

[Bonnewagon]

Yes, some people think they have gold. Be patient and I'm sure you will find something reasonable. I may even have a non- delay switch somewhere if I stumble across it I will let you know.

 

[MalibuHacon]

I've got some bad news. Just got back inside after standing in the cold for probably 3 hours trying to figure a way to shut off the windshield wipers. We eventually figured that the green wire was a good solution to hook up our toggle switch, it worked great when we first tested the green wire - plug motor assembly which worked great, we then hooked up a switch to the green wire in the dash and that worked. We drilled out a hole in the side of the dash next to the wiper switch.. We tested it a couple of times and wipers parked and shut off. We then took the car for a short drive to charge the battery (car has been sitting during the wiper situation) roughly 2 minutes into the drive the wipers start to go again, first just once, then it got worse, we drove back home and the same happened when we turned the key off and on.

We figured we should to as you told Bonnewagon, to use the black wire, we did this instead and when we tested the switch the wipers went to the high setting rather then shutting off and parking. We then carefully read through your instructions and agreed that your "black wire" had to be our "purple wire" so we redid everything for the 3rd time and nothing was improved. at this point we went back to the motor assembly and took out the green plug, this did no longer affect the wipers, they still wiped even after this. the only wire we haven't tested is the pink and grey one.
We eventually thought that this had to do with grounding to do.. but we're unsure and frankly very annoyed at this problem 🙁 (wiring is now an even a bigger mess, and the wires are all very tight)
- Hakon

 

[Bonnewagon]

Hacon, look back at the schematic I posted, the black wire "should" be ground. Doesn't mean it is what with all the crimp connectors I see on your wiring. I would suggest this- test all wiring for correctness and shorts. By that I mean disconnect the wiring at the dash switch and at the wiper motor and test that each wire is what it is supposed to be, color to color. Compare the wiring to the schematic, anything is possible. You may find it easier to run new wiring altogether. I once did just that as a test- I used spade connectors to make up a short harness, about a foot long, that I plugged into the wiper motor and the switch. I was able to run the wiper correctly, which proved that somewhere in the car's main harness there was a wiring problem. I then made up a new 5 wire harness and ran it through the firewall from the motor to the dash and all was well. I never did find out what the actual problem was but after rewiring it didn't matter. Believe me, the wipers are very complicated and give me a headache just reading the manual. That is why most people just replace all the components, it is difficult to understand the system even with the manual in front of you. Unfortunately you are over there and don't have access to junkyards like we do. I am going to scan and post the pages from the manual so you can read all of it, but I will need some time as I am busy right now. Also, I remember you saying this all started after you replaced the washer pump- the original pump may still be at fault here as the manual says it is an integral part of the system. Hang in there , we will get this figured out..

 

[MalibuHacon]

Thank you bonnewagon,
I'm sure I'll get it sorted out too. I'll check the wires and do more tests. Copy's of the repair instructions would be great. At this point in time if nothing works out i'm considering just making a cut off switch that removes all power to the motor, and then taking up this problem once I get access to the local american car club and garage in December, hoping that the fellow enthusiast might have spare parts or insight..

BTW crimp connections were made yesterday while trying to fix the situation... that's our bad.

 

[Bonnewagon]

Hacon, I'm back. Did you do the tests? The book deals with specific situations so let's narrow this down How would you define the problem exactly? Do the wipers operate normally, but won't shut off at all? Or do they park and restart? Does the delay work? In both LO and HI? Does MIST work? And if so, does it cycle then shut off? When you shut off the ignition, do they stop where they are, or park? If you start the car and not touch the wipers, do they come on by themselves? If you disconnect the wiper switch from the harness while the wipers are working, what do they do? Did you disconnect the harness from the switch and motor and test for shorts and grounds?

 

[Longroof79]

Mark,
I think you view this as a personal challenge. It's a good exercise for the mind...especially for us older guys.
I commend you on your tenacity.

 

[pontiacgp]

I'm parking my GP pretty soon. I have the delay wipers but I don't a windshield washer pump installed but everything is there to put your pump in.. I use a remote pump on an F body reservoir I use (it holds more fluid). If you can't get yours working I can send you mine, (motor and board, it's a 3 wire so I hope yours is as well) and I'll replace mine some time during the winter. You can just pay me for the shipping and whatever you think is fair for the part.

 

[MalibuHacon]

Bonnewagon and Longroof: I'll try to explain every detail now 😛 🙂 .
- Pontiacgp thats very very kind indeed! - What do you mean by 3-wires? is that behind the black cover? or inside the assembly? i have not yet been in there 😛 i've only done test with the plugs on the assembly and switch, the most time consuming work went into trying to make an extra external off/park switch for the interior wiper switch. - I¨ll get back to you on this if I can't fix mine - I have already installed an external pump that sits next to the reservoir - thanks

- As for my situation: Wiper start up immediately when i switch the key to run (just before crank) but they will park given that their in Delay mode and delay is set to minimum, this works for maybe a minute then it will start to go continuously.
If i start to switch my wiper from delay to the other functions the delay function will stop working (i think) i then have to reset my key. i did not even know that the delay function was supposed to work on min, and high aswell, it does not park at all if thats what you mean while in min or high.
Mist function used to work, i don't know if it works because all that did was to turn wipers on if I held it (but their always on)
Washer button works fine .. 🙂

My dad and I installed a switch on the side of the dash that we wired into the green cable, this worked great for a moment (we though this was a good idea because the green plug on the motor assembly would park the wipes if pulled out). That worked great wor the happy 3-5 minutes it worked. We were thrilled to finally have fixed to problem so we went for a drive, 2 minutes into the ride the wipers slowly started going 🙁 . and then they went constantly. We went back and tried pulling the green plug from the assembly! Wipers still on! If i pull the other plug from the assembly the wipers shut off i think.. After this we did as bonnewagon suggested which was to connect a switch to the black cable on the switch, this only made the wipers go on high, (very fast) while engaged, and slowly while disengaged...
we have yet to do multi-meter (12V lamp) tests too look for ground issues, because we went out off electrical wiring shrink parts (the tube things in red, blue and yellow). (we bought more)
We're thinking the ground in the switch is maybe? not bad because the Low/high function works, one thought we had about the delay function only working for a few minutes might be because a red wire gets really hot (in the engine bay to the motor assembly), it has been modified before us
- When in off it does not park and restarts, it just stays on as if in "min-setting"
- we have not yet tested for grounds in the switch
- wipers shuts off where they stand while keys are turned. when keys are in ignition and not in "run"

I'm continuing the wiring tomorrow, we bought a cheap relay thing for the external off switch we're trying to make, as well as more electrical connection tubes
.