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I need wiring help! Wipers on the street truck...

Stomis

Stomis

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Ive been down this road before. Went from buzzing screwed up wipers to fixing them initially when I first got the truck. I had loads of electrical stuff wrong, ignition switch that was leaving certain circuits constant hot and not power some at all, wires jumped all over the place just to get them to work, replace the pulse board added the ground to them back in the PO cut, and fixed the buzzing and got them working except they wouldn't shut off. That turned out to be the switch no cancelling properly.


So now that the LS is in and Im wrapping up the harness I had to rewire the windshield wipers. What a pain in the ass. The connector cost me $40 at the junkyard, a hasty move on my part thinking I was going to wrap things up that day and it would be worth finishing... Regardless. I start peeling through the wiring I find that the wiper low switch ran through the old ECM plug. So I jump that back and get it through the bulkhead on the firewall.

Now Ive got:

White to ignition fused wiper as the constant power source for the motor, all good there.

Purple 12v from wiper switch for high, works great

Grey 12v from wiper switch for low, works great

Now I have this orange wire left that is suppose to function as the cancel/intermittent and the washers and for the life of me Ive got no ****ing clue how to wire this. The schematic shows:

0996b43f80231a0b.gif



So Im pretty good with this stuff, not an expert but I can usually work my way through this stuff. Im lost after today. There is no signal wiring as called out coming from my steering column. The wiper switch has 3 wires not 4 as shown in the schematic. The blk/blue that turn to orange and goes to the motor is MIA. And I searched looking for perhaps a wrong color in the diagram and no luck.

Also I dont follow the schematic on these washers. If I splice the orange wire to the pump it will be on all the time as it goes hot out of the motor disconnected with the wipers on.

Anyone have some insight to help me out here? It has a brand new motor, and pulse board in it. The switch is also brand new but Im considering taking the column back apart to see if I crushed a wire maybe...
 
Well, I checked my schematics, and found the same one you posted.
But, just to really screw things up. I found another one. Not sure what year, but it is slightly different.......

0900c1528003db7d.gif
 
It seems to me to make more sense that the washer does not go through the motor board, but I may be wrong.
 
I would agree but at the same time the module has a circuit board in it. What I gather the resistance signal from the stalk to the circuit board dictate what action is performed as far as making that wire hot for windshield wipers, delay length, and park.
 
Without seeing a schematic, I can't say for sure, but I would tend to doubt that. I have seen resistance switching before.
For instance, my '76 Elite used difference resistances to control the cruise control. But, that was because the switches were on the steering wheel, and there were limited control channels from the turning wheel to the column.
In your case, the switch is stationary and they could use as many wires as they needed.

There is a variable resistance that sets the sweep rate, but I doubt that the speeds and off/on are resistance control.
Wish I could see the circuit board......
 
OK, the schematic is not germain to your situation I don't think, but read some of the posts.
I think your setup is covered.......
I also see where the wipers are set to wipe a few times whenever the washer is triggered, which explains why the pump control goes through the delay module.

Some of the earlier ones just had a cam on the switch that turned on the wipers when you pressed the wash button, and I was thinking of that.
 
OK, one last idea and I'm gonna have to do some other stuff. Try to get back before I go to bed......

Looks like three wires to the switch, and the pink wire you are looking for comes from the module, not the switch......

93_astro.jpg
 
OH, and you were right, they do use resistance control.....I guess someone in the engineering department just likes doing things old school......

But, I believe that this solves your problem. The wire you cannot find does not exist on that model.
Just white/black, grey and purple.......
 
Finally got back to this. Man what a day. Hey, didn't I retire several years ago??
Nope, must have been someone else........

Anyway, I have run headlong into a contradiction. And I need to get it straight. In you first post, I understood you to say that the low and high speed worked. Here you indicate that they don't.
Not a problem, I just need to know what the system is doing now.

Does anything work?
Also, looking at the switch for a '94, on RockAuto, I see three wires like you said. White, grey, and purple.
Also, a pink jumper that does not go through the switch, but from one side of the plug to the other.
That seems to agree with the last schematic I posted, which leads me to think its the right one.

Does your wiring differ from that schematic? I feel quite sure we can get this thing going, but I have need a little more info....
 
Yes. High and low both function.


When set to off or intermittent they just keep running on low.

All the resistance and diode stuff takes place in the circuit board. Could my issue just be so stupid as needing to hook the orange wire to the pump prior to applying juice? Perhaps leaving that wire as an open lead instead of having resistance is causing some sort of backfeed through the board?
 
Hmm heres a legit diagram from all data.

Im really starting to think my trouble is coming from a resistance issue stemming from me not having the washer pump hooked up before turning the power on. Fordum wouldn't said situation lower the resistance in the board and cause wackyness?

diagram.jpg
 
OK, that clears that up. I keep referring to my last schematic. Its probably not right, since you have an orange wire and there is not one on it.
However, it does show the internal workings of the two pieces, which at least gives me something to study.
IF the switch on that schematic is correct, big if, then when its in off, there should be no connection between any of the three wires coming out of that switch.
If that connection is fairly easy to get to, you might unplug it and check with an ohmmeter.
Make sure its not hooked to any source of power, of course to protect your meter.

If all leads are open, and the wipers still run on low, then it does not matter about the switch.
In fact, if the wipers keep running when you unplug the switch, then at least we have probably eliminated it and its wiring from the problem.

Note, of course, if you kill power to the motor when you unplug the switch, then we have not learned anything.
Not sure where the motor is getting its power source right now. Your schematic shows it "T"ing off the switch power.

If its not the switch, then either the module is wired wrong, which includes a color mixup, wrong or bad splice, shorted wire in the harness somewhere, or your suggestion of the orange wire not being hooked up.
Or else, the module is bad.
Since its new, lets assume for the moment that its good.
Not always a safe assumption with new parts these days, but we can't replace or test it right now.

When you get a chance to work on it next, try to see if the switch is causing it to run in the off position or not.
We need to break the problem down into small enough pieces that we can run it down, and eliminating the switch would help.

If unplugging the switch causes the motor to stop, and it still has power, then either the switch is not wired the way the schematic shows, or its bad.
Again a new part.......

I wish I had that switch in hand, so I could try to work out how it is wired internally. In the RockAuto pics, I see one resistor, so there is some resistance involved.

Heck, if you get bored, take a couple of pics of the motor,pump, and wiring. Might not help, but I feel like I am working blind.
 
Hang on Vinnie, we cross posted. Let me study what you just sent.
 
Hmmm unplugging the switch while the wipers should be off should be a good start. Im gonna tear the steering wheel off and inspect the switch if I dont get anywhere. Also this is the second motor and third control board Ive had in it with the same affect so in general Im ruling out the motor/board.


Obviously Im also going to try to hook the orange wire up to the pump prior to energizing anything. IIRC with the white constant from the fuse hooked up with no grey or purple for low/high the wiper does not run at all. Im also going to check my pinout on my plug since its a donor.



But the lack of black/blue wire as pointed out in every schematic has me baffled...
 
OK, really hoping you read where I said we cross posted. My post sounded like I was replying to your last one......
If the circuit was designed correctly, then not hooking up that wire should have no effect.
If the pump burned up or went bad, then your wipers would run on low all the time.

Having said that, yeah, its entirely possible.

One important thing to see, the orange wire you are talking about does not actually have anything to do with the switch.
According to the picture from RA, the switch has a pink jumper from one part of the plug to another.
That is your orange wire. It does not actually go through the switch, and does not hook to a black/lt blue wire like your first schematic shows.

Instead it only serves to hook the orange wire from the module to the pump. Probably a left-over from another system.
Your latest schematic of the switch is the same as mine except for one important difference, which might not be different..........

In mine, the off position is open. In yours, its at the end of that variable resistor.
Either one is possible I suppose. In your case, the resistance is so high that the time delay is infinite and they never come on. But its a heck of a way to run a railroad.
I suspect that "my" version is right, and yours is a misprint.

If so, then other than that pink jumper, the switch is completely out of the circuit when its off.
Which, of course, means that either that orange wire is necessary, or we have another problem causing them to run on low while on off.
 
Got it licked fordum. A stupid move on my part was the culprit. I had taken my low side wire which for some reason used to run through the ECU pigtail and spliced it back into a wire that ran through the primary fuse block. Apparently said wire had a splice in it somewhere tying it into other ignition source circuits.

I realized this when I decided to probe continuity of the gray low switch wire and found I was getting a circuit through the brake and gauge fuse...

I ran a dedicated wire from the wiper switch through the bulkhead to low and wahlah everything works and the orange wire went straight to the pump and only turns on when it should now.
 
Yep, breaking it down into parts that are involved and not involved. Once you found the problem persisted with the switch unplugged that let you concentrate on the smaller chunk.

And don't you just hate it when your are your own worst enemy........

Darn glad you got it going.
 
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