what's up with my wipers?

[colbystephens]

ok, so i finally got a wiper motor for my '73 blazer - haven't had one for it yet. i put it in today, this motor is off of a '74. i am having trouble with it in that its "off point" is the middle of its stroke. so, i turn it on, it works great, but when off it's right in my line of sight.

is it possible that i installed that little rectangular pin that drives the wipers 180* off and that's why i have the problem? doesn't seem like it would make a difference, but i didn't want to deal with trying it unless it is confirmed as a possibility.

here's a video for reference. start of video: wipers are off. then wipers on. then i shut them off, they return to center of the windshield, end of video.



additionally, i'm curious about the windshield cleaner on this truck. i think i push in on the switch to spray the windshield, and i tried it earlier, but nothing happened. however, i don't have a washer bottle or the proper size piece of hose, so i ended up using a piece of hose that may not have had a perfect seal on the nipple that takes in the water and stuck it in a coffee cup full of water. could the hose being too large be my problem? all the air was leaking in, and thus it wasn't picking up water?

finally, one last question. is the arm in the cowl supposed to be hitting the bottom of the cavity under the cowl? you hear that noise in the video - and it's the "elbow" that's actually attached to the motor hitting the bottom of the cavity under the cowl - what's up with that? they seem to operate quite smooth when the window is wet tho...

 

[lectric80]

Pull the rod off while it is in the park position, then move the wipers down to the true park position and reattach. It seems like you just have them in 180* out, which would be at the top of the stroke.

 

[colbystephens]

that's what i did originally, but the problem is that from the place they stop, they travel down half a stroke and up half a stroke. so, if i were to move the wipers (and i did try this), i end up bottoming out on the cowl and they get jammed and stop working till i remove the wipers and they can finish the stroke and move back up.

 

[lectric80]

Something is not lined up right, and it sounds like there is a loose arm or broken stanchion somewhere. The way I have always seen them work is you have a motor that turns in a circle and moves the arms based on the circle. Once in the park position, they shouldn't have any travel up or down from that point.

You could also try setting each wiper arm in the park position once they are parked, then see if they still move down first. If they are moving down first, instead of moving straight into clearing the window, I would say that the arm is off a bit more than 180, so that the first motion is not moving the arms correctly. It may be a difference in the 74 setup that isn't present in your 73.

Edit: Wait you said when you set it in the park position that they would move half a stroke in each direction, starting with down. Leave them exactly as they are right now, but move the actual wiper arms to the park position. Don't make any changes at the motor and see what you get.

 

[NEK5]

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Edit: Wait you said when you set it in the park position that they would move half a stroke in each direction, starting with down. Leave them exactly as they are right now, but move the actual wiper arms to the park position. Don't make any changes at the motor and see what you get.

Thats what it sounds like. Sounds like the wiper motor wasn`t in the "park" position when the wiper arms were installed.

 

[colbystephens]

i know they are in park. what i did to install the arms was this:

i turned the motor on with arms off. then i turned it off to make sure that it would go to park. then i installed the arms. this was a problem because then, when i turned on the motor, it proceeded to go up 1/2 stroke and then tried to go down a full stroke, getting jammed on the cowl. so i adjusted the wipers so i could simply go into the mountains yesterday - but they had to be put in the middle of the windshield so they wouldn't jam on either end of the stroke.

that's why i posted the video - to show where park is.

 

[British Slave]

There is an adjustment in the gear box on the wiper motor. It determines where the wipers park. Take the cover off and take a look.

 

[colbystephens]

i'll take a gander. thanks!