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Intermittent Wipers

O

OlTanNBrown

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Midland City, Al.
Several years ago the tilt (steering wheel) started loosening up on my 85 XJ. I thought, this is an easy fix as I had it tightened years before & the mechanic charged me $50, & had me back on the road in a jiffy. So I asked the local Firestone shop that worked on the company car(required) if they could handle it. They said "No Problem" I should have know when they called me later & stated it would be next day before they could get it finished as they were waiting on a tool:twak:. Well to make a long story short when they finished, the WS wipers no longer worked (they worked perfectly prior to that) & they had charged me $230 for the repair. I took it back to them & they fiddled with it for a month. Then they stated they had it fixed. I said great, turned the wipers on & they worked for about 5 seconds & boom! I took her to another mechanic at that point who found that the Fire Stone Monkey had pinched the wiring harness in the column when he attempted to make his repair & shorted everything out. The new mechanic had to replace the harness & had everything working fine & has worked since with only one problem. The intermittent part does not work, just single speed & no fluid pump. He stated the first guy must have damaged the wiper motor too & he was unable to locate a wiper motor to try as all the power now seemed fine. He seemed confident the new wiper module he also had to replace was a good one. He also charged me less than FS to do all that he had to do & trouble shoot their mess up. Any thoughts, ideas, or otherwise? Anyone ever experienced a situation similar to this regarding intermittent wipers?
Thanks. :helpme:
 
OlTanNBrown said:
Several years ago the tilt (steering wheel) started loosening up on my 85 XJ. I thought, this is an easy fix as I had it tightened years before & the mechanic charged me $50, & had me back on the road in a jiffy. So I asked the local Firestone shop that worked on the company car(required) if they could handle it. They said "No Problem" I should have know when they called me later & stated it would be next day before they could get it finished as they were waiting on a tool:twak:. Well to make a long story short when they finished, the WS wipers no longer worked (they worked perfectly prior to that) & they had charged me $230 for the repair. I took it back to them & they fiddled with it for a month. Then they stated they had it fixed. I said great, turned the wipers on & they worked for about 5 seconds & boom! I took her to another mechanic at that point who found that the Fire Stone Monkey had pinched the wiring harness in the column when he attempted to make his repair & shorted everything out. The new mechanic had to replace the harness & had everything working fine & has worked since with only one problem. The intermittent part does not work, just single speed & no fluid pump. He stated the first guy must have damaged the wiper motor too & he was unable to locate a wiper motor to try as all the power now seemed fine. He seemed confident the new wiper module he also had to replace was a good one. He also charged me less than FS to do all that he had to do & trouble shoot their mess up. Any thoughts, ideas, or otherwise? Anyone ever experienced a situation similar to this regarding intermittent wipers?
Thanks. :helpme:
Click to expand...

Back in the day when I was a good mechanic the tilt would take about 35-45 minutes to tighten up. It did require 3 special tools, two common ones and a small pin puller for the tilt pivot pins. Pinching a wire is common if you haven't done this type of work before and at Firestone, it probably isn't a common requested repair.

Now, the intermitten wipers. Under the dash just about left of center on the steering column center line is a black box that is about 3x5x2 inches. On both ends are flat 7-pin connectors one male/one female. If unplugged from the box would be able to plug into each other. That box is the intermitten wiper module. Check that with the wipers turned to the delay mode is there voltage at pin "A" an 16 or 18g dark green wire. If there is the the switch is good.

The module woule then be suspect, because it is an electronic component I would guess to be the source of your problem. My guess is a voltage spike did it in.
 
BoatWrench,
Thanks for the reply. That is what I suspected, but new mechanic says the module is OK, that it must be the motor. That did not make sense to me, but had to beleive him other than making a comment that I wonder if due to age of vehicle, dealer had given the last good & proper module to the monkeys & they blew it so gave the new new mechanic & standard module. I really don't know, but will try your test as soon as I can. Thanks again.
 
OlTanNBrown said:
, but new mechanic says the module is OK, that it must be the motor.
Click to expand...

Go to the link posted above and scroll to the very last post in the thread...#40 by ECOMIKE. Take the two flat connectors and plug them into each other. If wipers work, motor is good, switch wiring is good and the intermittent timer module is bad. If the wiper still does not work use a jumper wire from BATT (+) source and bypass the entire source circuit directly to motor. The motor should engage and operate. If it does NOT, then it's the motor. I am still guessing it's the module because it all worked prior to the column repair and even though coincidences do happen, well not all the time.

Also thanks for the kind words.
 
Last edited:
OlTanNBrown said:
Wiper motor must be good then without even testing as wiper works fine, just not at different speeds.
Click to expand...

If wiper works the switch is probably good also. I don't recall the module being all that expensive (well it's relative) about $40-$50.
 
Boatwrench, Yes I agree. I think the motor is good & so is the current switch. However, as I noted earlier it is my unexperienced opinion in this matter that the module that was last replaced is probably one for non intermittent type wipers vs the intermittent type that that the monkeys blew. The mechanic kind of shakes his head in agreance with the opinion, but hasn't said too much although I believe he is a good guy. The problem seems to be with this 85 model is finding the right parts anymore sadly to say. Otherwise the vehicle is in extremely good condition & runs well.
 
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