Electrical Intermittent Wipers Working Intermittently

tca7291

I can see your wieners.
5 Year Member
Sep 1, 2011
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Raleigh, NC
So my wipers will go out at random when I have them on an intermittent setting, but will still work on low and high continuous, but won't park in the right spot, they will stop wherever they are when I turn the switch off. Kind of a pain trying to time it right all the time! Afterwards, they will just start working properly again out of nowhere, and I get my intermittent settings back, until it decides to go out on me again, then I am back to manually parking them. Any ideas? Thanks, Trent.
 
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After reviewing several wiring diagrams, I think it is the park contact/switch that is not having continuity. Is that located within the wiper motor transmission, or somewhere else?
 
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Park switch was my guess because I have done them on other cars. Don't know if the Fox one is replaceable or not. I'm sure its in the motor. You can probably clean the contacts, or if a solder joint is cracked, touch it with a soldering iron.
 
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Self Parking mechanism:
The self parking mechanism is copper circle glued or stuck on the wiper gear. The circle always has 12 volts on it until the wiper comes to the park position. There are two copper spring switch contacts, one provides power to the copper circle, while the other provides a path to the low speed winding. The power contact always provides power to the copper circle except when in the park position. The low speed contact is always in contact with the copper circle. When power is turned off at the wiper control, the 12 volts continues to flow to the low speed motor brush until the wiper blade returns to the park position.
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Interval Governor:
The interval governor is a fancy electronic switch that sends the motor a pulse of electricity that varies in duration time. It always runs on the slow speed motor brushes. Turn the wipers on and quickly turn them off. The self parking mechanism inside the motor makes sure that the wiper blades come back to the park position and stop there. The interval governor does the same thing: it sends power to the wiper motor and then turns it off. The duration of the pulse sent to the motor determines how many strokes it makes before stopping at the park position. If you watch carefully, you will notice the wiper blade speed is constant and never changes when you are using the interval wiper function.

Troubleshooting:
All tests done with the ignition switch in Run or Accessory position and wipers on.

1.) Look for constant 12 volts on the red wire on the wiper motor. No 12 volts, the fuse is blown, bad wiring or bad connection. This will cause park problems or no wiper operation
2.) Check the ground. No ground and nothing works, bad ground and you get intermittent operation.
3.) No high speed operation, low speed OK. Look for 12 volts on the Dark Brown/orange wire. No 12 volts, bad wiper switch, bad connections or bad wiring.
4.) No low speed operation, high speed OK. Look for 12 volts on the white wire. No 12 volts, interval governor faulty or missing, or bad wiring. Since this is a pulse and not a steady voltage, a test light used in parallel with the voltmeter may be a better indication of operation
5.) Motor low speed test: Jumper the brown/white wire on the interval governor to the white wire. The motor should run in low speed mode. I haven’t tested this yet, so use caution. If the motor does not run, the low speed brush may be bad.

Do all this and by that time, maybe I’ll have figured out some simple tests for the interval governor…

See http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/maintenance/how-to-fix-your-windshield-wiper-motors-2 for more help.
 
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Resurrection! Still have had issues and just replaced wiper motor assembly. Intermittent works with a jumper between db/o and b/w. Runs on high speed and jumper gets hot, but functions properly. Otherwise wont park and intermittent doesn't work at all, only hi and low speed with timing it to park...
 
Check the connection on your multifunction switch, I had similar problems and the connection was overheating and melted the plastic connection, found a good plastic piece and repined it and made sure connections were tight.
 
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Cool will do this evening, but just a thought, what energizes the park switch disk normally? Is it through the multifunction switch, or something else? I checked the governer box last night and it seems to be functioning properly. Well, lets go pull a steering column cover! Thanks for the help
 
The multifunction switch sends the power to the wiper motor
The spring switch will be hot till the wipers move to park, mine don't park sometimes, if I cycle it a few times it will park, it's original, if it wants to be sticky and grumpy I don't mind.
 
Ahh, resolution... After studying wiring diagrams and seeing what could be the possible issue over years, finally found that the relay in the wiper governor is having bad contact. Finally located it under driver's side dash, removed it and popped the case. Hooked it back up and flicked it. All started working properly. Woohoo!
 
Well, thought I had it fixed until this morning, and after a little diving into the governor control I found a bad solder joint on the circuit bord feeding the questionable relay. Resoldered the pin to the circuit bord and bingo! Problem solved. Easier than junk yard shopping for stock Fox parts. Lol. Thank you all for your help and input, it's always better to have more than one mind diagnosing a problem. Y'all rock!