Windshield Wiper Woes

[Tango]

OK. Hopefully last new issue of the day.

Thursday my wipers worked fine, so I thought. However, I noticed that on intermittent, the relay would click and the wipers move up about 20-30 degrees and then stop. When the relay clicked again, they would cycle fully and park then repeat. As far as I knew, this was normal. On non-intermittent, they worked fine, although I saw little difference between low and high speed.

Late yesterday afternoon I happened to switch on the wipers, not on intermittent. They moved to that same angle and stopped dead. If I tugged them, helped them a bit, they would continue on. Now I believe that on intermittent, the reason they stalled at that partway angle is that they didnt get far enough to get to the point where they will cycle all the way and park on their own, before the relay opened again. So it takes two relay cycles to complete a stroke.

Today, the same thing: they get to that point, there is a vibration but no further movement. I am hoping it is just a matter of lubricating linkages and that I dont need a whole new motor and assembly.

[Tango]

I tried lifting the arms up and it will run without their drag, but still wants to hang up at that one point. My Fiat manual says to "Pivot wiper arms up away from the windshield and pull them off the driveshaft". How? What keeps them on there to begin with? It will be a lot easier tomorrow when I romove he cowl and flip it up try test run the motor and linkage if those wiper arms arent there flailing away.

Tim

[So Cal Mark]

expect to disassemble, clean and lubricate the linkage and electrical connections to the wiper motor

[Tango]

Thanks, I just came back to this post to edit it. I dont know why I didnt find the info before, I guess i searched "windshield wipers" but when I searched "wipers" I hit the mother lode, including how to get the wiper arms off the splines -- apparently you just force them.

But I see this is a very common issue and since the PO never drove it in the rain, these have probably not been serviced for a very long time.

I found a good article by Mike Bouse that gives a good step by step process to fix the problems.

[mbouse]

yup, disassemble, clean and lubricate:
http://flumichigan.italiancarclub.com/T ... erArms.pdf

[Tango]

That's the one, Mike. VERY helpful and in beginner friendly language. I will get on that tomorrow night. Tonight I have to watch the Leafs lose to NYR.

I seem to recall some years ago buying some spray electrical connector cleaner from Radio Shack. Is anyone aware of a product like that to clean up electrical connectors?

Tim Morrison

[mbouse]

just about anywhere sells that stuff... i never liked it. ask RaceyDave what he thinks.

[Tango]

Well, I did the work tonight. Took off the cowl and took things apart as described in the procedure.

With the linkage unconnected from the motor, the linkage moved very, very easily, really no perceptible resistance at any point. Then I ran the motor uncoupled. It turned fine also, but if I grabbed the output arm on it I could easily stall it and it sounded like the gears were skipping inside. I reassembled the linkage to the motor and it ran just fine with everything in place except the wiper arms, of course.

So, I put everything back together except the arms, i.e. screwed the cowl back in place. Nothing. I recalled that the washer was on the same fuse. Nothing. I took the cowl back off and noticed that the wiring bundle passes through a grommet into the engine compartment EXACTLY under one of the sheet metal screws. Sure enough, there was a tiny chafing mark on one of them and I could just see copper. The sheet metal screw I had put in there was one of the long ones. Now I know why one of them had a thick fibre washer on it, so it goes in just far enough, but still, not a good design feature. luckily the PO had left a few fuses in the shoebox in the trunk.

Reassembled, put the arms back on and it is still not working. If anything it is worse. the arms move about 20 degrees and stop and there is an audible sound of something slipping, gears I guess, in the wiper motor. If I pull on the wiper arm, it gets going again but stops again in exactly the same spot. I had wetted the windshield first, so it seems that everything works fine except the motor gears just can't handle the load from the wiper friction on the windshield. I guess I need a new motor?

[mbouse]

i believe the rad fan runs off the same fuse.

[Tango]

I think it is just the wipers, washer and heater fan, but I am pretty confident that the fuse blew because I grounded it out when the screw made contact with the live wire.

Are the wiper motors fixable or do they have to be replaced as a unit?

Tim

[narfire]

I had a local guy here that seems to be able to re-furbish most small motors. He has done the starters I seem to be collecting.Is there a auto/truck electric place nearby? If an easy fix($$) that might be a way to go.
However, if it is toasted, take a look in the parts section of the forum,there might be a used one available. Hey this morning the Can. Loonie is way up around 97 cents,making the parts from the vendors even more affordable.

[Tango]

I bought a used motor from Lenny at Auto Italia on eBay. Tonight I installed it after cleaning all of the linkages and lubricating everything that moves and most things that dont. Really the linkage was not stiff to begin with. I think the gears and motor were just clapped out.

Works just fine. The motor is much stronger than the old one, wipers work at twice the old speed on slow and surprisingly fast on high. Man, it is VERY hard to remove the cowl single-handedly without scratching something that shows.

My first successful Fiat repair. This calls for a Beck's fake beer and a Cuban cigar.

Tim