Wipers do not work.

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I have been trying to eliminate issue with the 73 vert so I can go on longer trips. This past Saturday I was in rain and the wiper do not work. I unplugged the connection to the motor and get no voltage to any of the 4 wires. All fuses are good checked both sides. When you push the wiper nob the pump runs for the washer. I see there is a Circuit Breaker built in the switch. It has intermittent wiper also.

What do I check first. Again all fuses good check both side of connections.

No voltage to any wires going to wiper motor with switch on motor running or not.

It is a pain to get that IW switch out with dash in the car.

I hate wiring issues on any car. The diagrams are such a mess and the factory manuals have nothing in them.

 

[midlife]

Power is supplied by a black/green wire (2 wires) on one "corner"; this is ACC power but fused. Another wire, white/black, is also fused; the rest are not.

I'd highly suspect your wiper switch and/or the intermittent switch screwing up things. Wiring rarely goes bad on these things.

 

[Don C]

The distribution of electricity is mostly mechanical, connectors, switches, etc. Even the intermittent wiper switch can be viewed as mostly mechanical, a variable resistor and a few diodes in addition to the switch.

Most problems with electricity, in our cars, can be traced to a mechanical problem, like a bad ground.

 

[1sostatic]

Does the dash switch handle all that inrush current to a motor -- or does it engage a relay to serve the motors ?  If the wiper switch has the amperage capability to complete the circuit - I'm with these guys ... the years of use have nibbled the contacts away

Or has the intermittent wiper governor got a prob ? -- it could be that one of those silly crimp terminals has come away ... things tend to break in a simple way. Just annoying trying to find which bit of car it's hidden in 

Unless like in Close Encounters of the third kind - you have an Alien spacecraft hovering over Carolina, sapping all your power

 

[OMS]

You have multiple cars - pull a good used switch - reach under the dash and unplug the harness from the black connector.

Plug in a good test switch. You need to use a standard switch, this will by pass / test your complete intermittent system without removing it

 

[midlife]

Power is supplied by a black/green wire (2 wires) on one "corner"; this is ACC power but NOT fused.  Another wire, white/black, is also fused; the rest are not.

I'd highly suspect your wiper switch and/or the intermittent switch screwing up things.  Wiring rarely goes bad on these things.

Sorry...fixed the one non-fused power line.

 

[rackerm]

David,

I have trouble reading the wiring schematics as well, but for what it's worth here is the one for the 1973 intermittent and standard wiper switch. From what I can tell with the intermittent wiper switch many of the wires are first connected thru the governor and then to the switch and back and then to the wiper motor. Also, the ground is connected to the cigarette lighter ground, which is different than the standard two-speed switch ground. Maybe try testing the wires in the plug before the governor and then after (at the plug for the switch).

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I guess I will do like Don suggests pull one out of another dash. I have couple dashes out of car and complete. I will have to see if I have a picture of the back side and see if ground wire is there. I do know I turned them on and worked well over a year ago and then they quit in mid stroke and arms were in middle of windshield. Then they went down.

Speaking about electricity. A tree trimmer here where I live got too close to high voltage line and got zapped pretty hard. I think they said 7,200 volts. Wire hit his shoulder and back of his head. It burnt his clothes and he had some bad burns on his legs. His co worker got him down and called 911 and they flew him to emergency room. The co worker called his boss and told him he was dead. Spent some time in burn center but is home. Has to wear a heart monitor for a while.

Dr. could not believe he lived they said he smelled like burnt meat.

I worked at Square D for 4 years and Cutler Hammer for 16 years but never got into electrical. I was tool & die maker and worked on molds, zinc die casting, thermoset, stamping dies and automatic assembly machines. Also did designs.

Mechanical I can fix electrical not any desire to learn I guess. I can wire house and shop no problem but never got into the deep stuff. Cutler Hammer offered to pay for college if I would go but I said no several times.

All the stuff on the car that usually does not work works, lol. The seat belt buzzer, key buzzer, convenience lights, map light, seat back release.

 

[TheRktmn]

The LOW and HIGH functions will work w/o the ground wire.

You can test the low and high functions by removing the box and plugging the switch straight to the main harness.

You can check the box by swapping it into another car with intermittent wipers.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Swapping the wiper switch ranks right up there with brake booster. I got the old one out or part of it. The switch came apart the plastic part from the zinc die cast part and the insides got lost in the dash and could not get it out. I put one in from parts car and I now have wipers. So off to Concord on Saturday to the MOM. Will be at least 250 miles so that should tell me if the car is good or not.

I am covered up in yellow squash, zucchini squash, onions and tomatoes just starting. Black berries over the 4th. of July usually.

Going to put some wire dividers on the plug wires tomorrow and fill it up with non ethanol 90 for the trip and some Lucas gas treatment.

Don if you read this. Is there a difference in the speedometer cable on a 73? It looks to be about 3" too short to hook up on this car. No way it can get to the cluster. I have a 72 I can put in but might also be short.