Posted: 01/December/2007 at 1:44pm | IP Logged

The intermittent wipers and the self park function have failed to work since I bought my '97 GT so I decided to sort it out this morning. I was going to buy a new motor but reckoned that a second hand one could well have the same fault.

Before you do anything else, remove the multi pin plug from the motor and check that voltage is getting to it motor. A test lamp will do for this. Inside the plug there are 6 contacts in pairs of 2. Each pair are joined together. 2 of the three wires should light your test lamp with the ignition on and the wipers turned on. The third wire is an earth.

Assuming that all is well with the sparks, the problem is with the motor.

Basically the self park and intermittent functions utilise a disc with a section missing though which an electrical contact is made from a battery fed permanent live feed. When the contacts reach the part where the section is missing the contact is broken and the wipers park. If your wipers just stop wherever they happen to be when you switch off and your intermittents just do 30 degree sweeps the following should fix it.

First you need to remove the section of the motor case where the electrical connections are. As highlighted in this pic:

It is help on by 4 rivets which you need to either drill or chisel the heads off. I went for the chisel in the end as the strut brace severely limits access with the drill. Once the heads of the rivets are off, gently tap a thin screwdriver between the part you are removing and the rest of the motor. Work your way around and it will pop off. On the part you have removed are 3 electrical contacts and, on the motor there is a silver metal disc like this:

Yours will be covered in thick black congealed grease and it is this grease causing you problems. You need to clean it all off using wd40, brake cleaner or whatever else you have to hand so it looks like the picture.

Having done that, gently bend the 3 electrical contacts outwards taking care not to snap them. All you are doing is adjusting to take account of any wear so they only need to stick out a couple of mm more than they did when you removed the cover.

Before you refit the cover, put a bit of grease on the gears but not the silver disc. To finish off, put a small blob of araldite, JB weld or similar on each of the stubs of the rivets and tap the cover back onto them. I put a cable tie on mine to hold it until the glue dries.

You should now have fully functioning wipers

Posted: 17/December/2007 at 8:46pm | IP Logged

Excellent How to!

I've moved this to the knowledgebase so it will hopefully help others in future!