Ground(s) location for wiper switch 84 2500

[twraska]

I’m having dash and wiper issues, motor works and dash seems to work fine if I ground the wire on the motor and turn switch on. I’m assuming a bad ground wire and back feeding causing the issues. Anyone know location(s) of the switch ground?
Thanks
Tim

 

[Snoots]

Look on the upper drivers side kickpanel. There should be a connector screwed into the metal wall that has 6 connections available.
Remove that connector and hand sand clean the area where the connector goes and the backside of the connector. Apply a dab of copper anti-seize and re-install.

 

[twraska]

When you say upper kickpanel, are you meaning dash height, (gotta turn your head upside down) or behind the parkbrake pedal under the plastic trim?

 

[Originalthor]

Yes that's the spot just above the e brake

 

[SirRobyn0]

Like others have said right above the emergency brake. But since you didn't go to much into specifics on your wiper issues I'm going to point out the wiper motor ground a well.

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See that copper thing that runs from one mount leg to the other. This is the most overlooked wiper problem, and all sorts of interesting things will occur if it's not good enough.

This is something I wrote in another post, but it gives a good explanation of the ground tab, and shows a picture of a ground that likely to be problematic even though the owner thought it was ok.

About the ground, each mount has a rubber isolator that the bolt goes though. Only one acts as a ground, Two of the mounts in (in the below picture) are 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.

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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[twraska]

Your explanation makes sense. I’m following a ‘mechanic’ that checked the system and then replaced the motor. He said everything was checked (I had given him the discussion from an thread I found here to help him). But, when the new motor didn’t fix it, it came out he was a parts changer, couldn’t trace an electrical problem if his life depended on it.

I’ll jump the ground strap to double check the ground strap. The reason I keep looking at the inside is the dash acts up (temp gauge pegs out and turn signal lamps shine very dim) but these problems go away when I ground the purple high speed or low speed wires on the motor itself.

 

[SirRobyn0]

Your explanation makes sense. I’m following a ‘mechanic’ that checked the system and then replaced the motor. He said everything was checked (I had given him the discussion from an thread I found here to help him). But, when the new motor didn’t fix it, it came out he was a parts changer, couldn’t trace an electrical problem if his life depended on it.

I’ll jump the ground strap to double check the ground strap. The reason I keep looking at the inside is the dash acts up (temp gauge pegs out and turn signal lamps shine very dim) but these problems go away when I ground the purple high speed or low speed wires on the motor itself.

Most likely the turn signals glowing dim is a bad ground at the front marker lights or rear tail lights. What happens is the running lights back feed the system looking for a ground. The most common issue is the front ground. The temp gauge could be anything from a bad sending unit to the gauge itself.

Does your truck have delay? The delay modules have been know to create odd problems as well. It's a little harder to pin point a delay box issue though. Generally you just eliminate everything else first....

 

[SirRobyn0]

Oh another thing I thought of. You might consider calling the shop and seeing if they will tell you what brand of wiper motor they installed. The most common thing on the market is the cardone / A1Cardone reman units and they are just terrible. The last time we tried to use one of their motors on a square in the shop we went though 3 of them before ordering a new WIA branded motor. ACDelco wiper motors for our trucks seem to be no longer made.

One of the problems with cardone / A1Cardone is that they make a lot of the store branded stuff to, so for example NAPA branded reman'ed wiper motors are produced by Cardone. So there is another little something for you to think about.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Look on the upper drivers side kickpanel. There should be a connector screwed into the metal wall that has 6 connections available.
Remove that connector and hand sand clean the area where the connector goes and the backside of the connector. Apply a dab of copper anti-seize and re-install.

Is copper antiseize conductive enough? Id think it would be a poor, but perhaps stable conductivity over time but I wouldnt know I guess haha.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Oh another thing I thought of. You might consider calling the shop and seeing if they will tell you what brand of wiper motor they installed. The most common thing on the market is the cardone / A1Cardone reman units and they are just terrible. The last time we tried to use one of their motors on a square in the shop we went though 3 of them before ordering a new WIA branded motor. ACDelco wiper motors for our trucks seem to be no longer made.

One of the problems with cardone / A1Cardone is that they make a lot of the store branded stuff to, so for example NAPA branded reman'ed wiper motors are produced by Cardone. So there is another little something for you to think about.

private labeling sucks. its how AC Delco could mean anything from literal factory parts to literal chinesium junk city just like store brands can be

 

[SirRobyn0]

Is copper antiseize conductive enough? Id think it would be a poor, but perhaps stable conductivity over time but I wouldnt know I guess haha.

My personal opinion it's probably ok, but it would be better to use dielectric grease, as that kind of thing is what dielectric grease is made for.

private labeling sucks. its how AC Delco could mean anything from literal factory parts to literal chinesium junk city just like store brands can be

Agree. It makes it hard to know what's really inside. NAPA reman'ed alternators is an other example. In that case NAPA uses various suppliers, so you might one manufactured by denso one day and a cardone the next day. And unfortunately your right about ACDelco. ACDelco cap and rotors have gone to krap. They now come with aluminum contacts WTF, so I'd running Standard motor products blue streak cap & rotor BC they still come with brass contacts and the price is still reasonable. ACDelco seems to still be producing good electronics, such as alternators for our rigs.

 

[twraska]

Most likely the turn signals glowing dim is a bad ground at the front marker lights or rear tail lights. What happens is the running lights back feed the system looking for a ground. The most common issue is the front ground. The temp gauge could be anything from a bad sending unit to the gauge itself.

Does your truck have delay? The delay modules have been know to create odd problems as well. It's a little harder to pin point a delay box issue though. Generally you just eliminate everything else first....

The turn signal indicators and temp gauge works when I supply ground to the motor leads AND the switch is on that speed.
I’ve checked the motor ground by adding a temporary ground from the strap to the battery, nothing changed.

 

[Snoots]

Is copper antiseize conductive enough? Id think it would be a poor, but perhaps stable conductivity over time but I wouldnt know I guess haha.

Never had an issue in over 40 years.

 

[Doppleganger]

I dont even use those stamped ground straps anymore. Buy the braided ones like they ground blocks with. Can run it to any bolt you want.

private labeling sucks. its how AC Delco could mean anything from literal factory parts to literal chinesium junk city just like store brands can be

AC Delco also has 2 tiers of parts in identical boxes with the same PN. For example, the FI intank pumps made in Chy-na = $45 and total junk (I had one in my hand that was internally wired backwards). Made in Brazil = $110 and OE quality. Even weighed more.

But other places like SKF Bearings, have 3 tiers. Go figure.

 

[SirRobyn0]

AC Delco also has 2 tiers of parts in identical boxes with the same PN. For example, the FI intank pumps made in Chy-na = $45 and total junk (I had one in my hand that was internally wired backwards). Made in Brazil = $110 and OE quality. Even weighed more.

But other places like SKF Bearings, have 3 tiers. Go figure.

Right and a lot of parts companies do that. Standard motor products SMP line I don't want to go so far as to call the standard line junk, but not the best for sure, where as Standard motor products blue streak line is top quality stuff. Lets not forget Standard owns Borg Warner Distributing and sells ignition parts under using the moniker "BWD". Around here anyway BWD stuff is so rare I can't comment on the quality anymore.... Wix filters is another one. Wix makes (@AuroraGirl here we go W/private labeling again) microgard, and NAPA filters who knows if WIX is manufacturing those filters to the same specs..... And WIX is now owned by Mann filters. As far as I can tell they have not changed the filters though. I think they bought WIX a year or so ago and I've kind of kept an eye on the independent filter studies as I run WIX (actual WIX branded) filters on all my rigs, plus it's what we stock at the shop.