Bypassing the wiper controller

[TomoHawk]

Is it possible to bypass the electronic controller for the windshield wiper motor? I had the idea that maybe the controller (a transistorized thing) itself is pooped-out, so that might be the reason why the motor is slow. If you could do a quick check, then you could narrow things down. The controller doesn't seem to be available new.

thxZ

[2-4-T-Z-MAN]

Mine did the slow wiper thing and I had to remove the wiper motor and clean 30 years of build up between the armature contacts. Check the brushes for wear also.

Another area that can cause a slow down is the pivot points where the wiper arms attach and the wiper assembly under the cowl. They may need cleaning.

Good luck.

Barrie

[TomoHawk]

I've already cleaned & lubed the arms twice, once with a total dissasembly, so the only thing there is to get the motor out and open that up. It'll spin around happily on its own, and slows down under load. The only thing reason why I resist taking the motor out is because it would probably be difficult to reseal the plastic bag later.

thxZ

[TomoHawk]

Is this ( cleaning the insides/brushes/etc.) something you can have done at an electric motor service place?

thxZ

[sblake01]

I guess you could. I did mine myself.

[2-4-T-Z-MAN]

I did mine also. Not hard to do at all, just time consuming.

[sblake01]

Here's a quote from another thread that pretty much sums it up:

I was scrounging parts off my parts car and decided to take the cowl panel and the wiper motor off before they get stolen. Thought I might clean up the wiper motor and assemblies to put on my recently painted stock restoration '72. Just a perfect October Texas day with nothing else to do, I took the wiper motor and hooked it up to my '73 driver to see If it was in working order. No such luck! Well, I had nothing else to do, so I grabbed some tools and went to work. I'm no genius, and not an electical wizz, but with a 7ml and 8ml hard wrenches, some dental floss, and some axle grease, I had that wiper motor working perfectly in an hour.

This process is so simple, you have to try it. First, take the plastic cover off of the wiper motor assembly. Next, take a 7ml wrench and remove the band around the motor for the relay. Next, take an 8ml wrench and remove the two 8ml nuts that hold the motor to the gear drive. you can now remove the motor stator (?) from the housing. Take some 600 grit sand paper the clean the surface where the three brushes make contact. I also sanded the motor surfaces to remove rust. Clean the inside of the housing (magnet) with some thinner and remove all lose corrosion by hitting housing on flat surface and blowing out housing with air gun. I used dental floss to hold the three brushes back in order to reassemble the motor to the gear housing. Before tighting the two 8ml nuts, remove the dental floss, which I tied around the three motor mounts to keep the brushes from popping out. I greased the worm drive and both bearing surfaces too, before the reassembly, so don't forget this. finally, I took the motor over to my '73 driver, and it worked perfectly! you might also want to clean all the contacts for insurance. All this in an hour. Go for it!

[TomoHawk]

I have mostly thumbs, so if there are any springy things and loose stuff like brushes that you can't GOOP into place, then I would probably have an experienced person do it instead.