'64 Wipers

[Mike O'Keefe]

I have a '64 Coupe on which I recently had the wiper motor rebuilt. It worked fine on the bench test I did before installation. Once installed however, it only worked on high speed. Something I figured I could live with. Now, when I turn the wipers off, they refuse to stop. They go almost to the bottom position but they 'pulsate' until I turn the ignition off. Once the ignition is turned on, the problem is over until I engage the wipers again. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[Bill D.]

Re: '64 Wipers

Mike--

First make sure you attached the ground wire and that the wire is also grounded. If that is OK, remove the washer pump assy, check the linkage and depressed park switch for proper engagement. Make note of the positions the linkage moves to with each change of the wiper and ignition switches. There was a similar question about 2 weeks ago, with many recommendations. Check the archives . The truth is out there !! Good luck.

Wild Bill

[David W.]

Re: '64 Wipers

Mike: Wild Bill is right about the thread from a few weeks ago as it was mine. I can't give you a complete solution but I can give you a couple of hints. Thru the process of elimination, the problem is inside the wiper motor, as you suspected. It is not the dash switch as my wipers kept dancing even with the wires temporarily pulled from the switch. I had to disconnect the small lead at the bottom of the wiper motor to completely stop mine from moving. Unfortunately I can't give you much more help as I have not removed my wiper motor due to bowtie considerations. Once my problem is resolved I will post the results. Anything more you can find out would be most appreciated. David

[Wayne M.]

Re: '64 Wipers

Just a reminder to everyone that there is a symtom/probable remedy table for C2 wiper problems in the '63 shop manual.

(S) Wiper operates high speed only (either dash switch defective, or red lead between dash switch and wiper unit is open circuit). (R) see dash switch checking procedure (earlier in section).

(my caution) color of leads varies between '63 and later years (ie. red could be something else in '64).

(S) Wiper will not shut off --- latching mechanism binding / relay control switch defective (see earlier relay control checking procedure)

[G B.]

Two separate problems?

My guess is that you have a problem in your dash switch or wiring harness causing the high speed only operation.

The pulsing rather than shutting off completely sounds like the contacts within the wiper motor are malfunctioning. These are mounted in a plastic housing with a Rube Goldberg mechanical linkage to make/break the points contact. The contacts get out of adjustment when the plasic housing cracks. This is the most common mid-year wiper motor problem I've encountered.

Sometimes the current flow can hold the "run" contacts together (even though the linkage is in "park") until you kill the power through the ignition switch. When the current flow stops, the points will separate.