80's Wiper technology sux

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SirRobyn0

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@LateOnTheBrakes I'm not going to comment on what color wires should have what voltage when because of your painless kit and I just don't know. If not one else here does you may have to reach out to them.

About the ground, each mount has a rubber isolator that the bolt goes though. Only one acts as a ground, I copied your picture below and circled the ground components. But you have two of the mounts in view, the upper one is NOT a ground the lower one IS the ground, that metal tab which is riveted to the body of the motor on one end and sandwitched below the metal mount is the only ground it has and by the way it looks terrible. Wire wheeling the surface you can see will help the bolt to mount contact, but does nothing for the tab part. If that metal mount is as rusty on the underside as it is on the front. Plus that bolt makes the contact and that surface area is rusty, heck even the threads in the bulkhead are rusty. There is no way that ground is working properly. If this is a restoration project, or you care about it looking correct, the rubber mount will pop out you'll need to get to get all metal parts in relationship to the ground nice and clean with all rust removed and then coat all surfaces in dielectric grease. An easy way would be to cut a 6 inch length of wire, put two eyelets on each side, drill the rivet out of the current ground, clean the metal up there, and secure one end of the wire to that spot with either a screw or small nut and bolt. Then the other end of the eyelet can go around one of the mount bolts after the bolt is cleaned up, and do the best you can to clean up the threads on that bolt hole, if you have a tap that would work or just do the best you can running the bolt in and out a few times and spraying a bunch of penetrating oil in there to help with the clean up. Coat all connections in dielectric grease. Not only will that help the contact now, but it'll help prevent issues down the road.

Now I do think that you are going to find other problems, either in the wiring or elsewhere, but I would fix that ground first and see what does and doesn't work after that.

Below: I circle the entire ground unit on the motor in yellow. The rivet in red and the mount in blue, note that the tab goes under the mount so cleaning the top of the mount won't help the tab connection. Let me know if this all makes sense or not.

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LateOnTheBrakes

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@LateOnTheBrakes I'm not going to comment on what color wires should have what voltage when because of your painless kit and I just don't know. If not one else here does you may have to reach out to them.

About the ground, each mount has a rubber isolator that the bolt goes though. Only one acts as a ground, I copied your picture below and circled the ground components. But you have two of the mounts in view, the upper one is NOT a ground the lower one IS the ground, that metal tab which is riveted to the body of the motor on one end and sandwitched below the metal mount is the only ground it has and by the way it looks terrible. Wire wheeling the surface you can see will help the bolt to mount contact, but does nothing for the tab part. If that metal mount is as rusty on the underside as it is on the front. Plus that bolt makes the contact and that surface area is rusty, heck even the threads in the bulkhead are rusty. There is no way that ground is working properly. If this is a restoration project, or you care about it looking correct, the rubber mount will pop out you'll need to get to get all metal parts in relationship to the ground nice and clean with all rust removed and then coat all surfaces in dielectric grease. An easy way would be to cut a 6 inch length of wire, put two eyelets on each side, drill the rivet out of the current ground, clean the metal up there, and secure one end of the wire to that spot with either a screw or small nut and bolt. Then the other end of the eyelet can go around one of the mount bolts after the bolt is cleaned up, and do the best you can to clean up the threads on that bolt hole, if you have a tap that would work or just do the best you can running the bolt in and out a few times and spraying a bunch of penetrating oil in there to help with the clean up. Coat all connections in dielectric grease. Not only will that help the contact now, but it'll help prevent issues down the road.

Now I do think that you are going to find other problems, either in the wiring or elsewhere, but I would fix that ground first and see what does and doesn't work after that.

Below: I circle the entire ground unit on the motor in yellow. The rivet in red and the mount in blue, note that the tab goes under the mount so cleaning the top of the mount won't help the tab connection. Let me know if this all makes sense or not.

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I think I'm following. I'm not concerned with keeping factory parts at this point. I would rather just buy a reman motor assembly than polish this turd.
 

SirRobyn0

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Genuine 70's / 80's wiper technology..
I got one for you. My square was previously owned by a friend of mine who has since passed. He was into electronics and circuit boards. So my rig does not have delay from the factory, but there is a toggle switch you can flip and when turned on provides a non-adjustable delay, the two wires off the toggle switch one runs to a key on power source the other to a black "project" type box under the dash. Once the screws are taken off the top of the box there is a circuit board inside which apparently provides the delay. Obviously a homebrew wiper delay, not something I would be able to think up.
 

LateOnTheBrakes

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The painless is just a factory replacement. It should have the same power/ground setup as it came from the factory.
 

SirRobyn0

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I think I'm following. I'm not concerned with keeping factory parts at this point. I would rather just buy a reman motor assembly than polish this turd.
Understand. Not sure if this is part of this thread, but please stay away from A1Cardone, we've had terrible luck with those at the shop and our best luck with WIA - new units, which are priced about the same as the remans. FYI most remans for these trucks will need to have the rubber part, and the metal part the bolt goes against those parts of the mounts transferred over from the old unit. The reman unit should come with new tab riveted in place. It also looks like the unit you are currently running was a reman unit, I say that because the factory ones and new replacements not painted like that, as in the bases are not black.
 

LateOnTheBrakes

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Understood. I will hold off on buying a new one until I know there isn't a further issue with the wiring. I am very tempted to just buy a flaming river steering column and get rid of all the Easter eggs the precious owner left me in this column. Looks like the wai is sold at my local carquest
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SirRobyn0

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SirRobyn0

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Understood. I will hold off on buying a new one until I know there isn't a further issue with the wiring. I am very tempted to just buy a flaming river steering column and get rid of all the Easter eggs the precious owner left me in this column. Looks like the wai is sold at my local carquest
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I don't for sure who makes the carquest reman units, but I'd suggest the WIA is worth the extra $20, it would be for me anyway. Though you might have to check delivery times as it says factory direct.
 

SirRobyn0

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If you want to continue trouble shooting with the old motor if it was me, I'd at least grind a clean spot on the motor and connect an extra length of wire to that spot and then to a good ground so you can see how it does and doesn't function with a proper ground.
 

LateOnTheBrakes

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Sadly I'm a better mechanical engineer than an electrician. As far as I can the pink wire carries power and it should get fed to go any of the three depending on the position of the switch.
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SirRobyn0

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Sadly I'm a better mechanical engineer than an electrician. As far as I can the pink wire carries power and it should get fed to go any of the three depending on the position of the switch.
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No problem. Give me a few to look them over and I'll give you some answers.
 

SirRobyn0

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Ok, so when I was telling you what the wire functions were earlier I was thinking of another system, I'm sorry about that because I gave you some bad information. What you are seeing on your meter looks pretty normal, I forgot that the motor uses a common power wire and the high and low paths are switched by changing ground paths though the switch on the column. The mount ground is still very important as that is the load part of the ground. I'm not sure my explanation totally makes sense, but you wouldn't see a +12 volts on the terminals as the switch is changed. PPL should be the ground path for high, gray should be the ground path for low and white should be 12+. Now you can check those switch ground paths by hooking the positive of your meter to the positive on the battery and then the black lead to which ever wire your testing. Sorry about the bad info earlier.
 

LateOnTheBrakes

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To follow up I swapped the motor, ran a tap through the threads to clean them up, and ran a dedicated ground to the firewall. I still think the switch is a problem as I only have one speed. But the one speed is much faster and the park switch finally works.

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SirRobyn0

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To follow up I swapped the motor, ran a tap through the threads to clean them up, and ran a dedicated ground to the firewall. I still think the switch is a problem as I only have one speed. But the one speed is much faster and the park switch finally works.

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Good glad you got working wipers at least. Did you end up with the WIA motor or another brand?
 

LateOnTheBrakes

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WAI global.
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