Guys:

I am working on the wipers on my Z and striking out big time. Problem is this: the Z has been rewired with a "Painless" - there's a laugh - wiring harness. It has one wiper power feed. I'm using a 280Z combo switch. I have searched but can't get them to work. From what I've been able to find, the wires are as follows:

Blue/White & Blue/Red = Windshield washer

Yellow/Green = Wiper power feed

Red/Blue = High Speed

Yellow/Black = Low Speed

Blue/Yellow = Intermittent

Black = Ground

I have the Painless wiper power feed running to the Yellow/Green wire, but it blows the fuse as soon as I turn it on.

Would someone be willing to set me straight on how to wire this? I'm even willing to throw someone $20 bucks to help me get this wiper wiring squared away.

Thanks much.

Bryan

Dat240zg

There is a thread on here about the honda wiper motor upgrade that goes into great depth with wiring diagrams. Should be something useful there for you.

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/thread28989.html might be it

Edited January 1, 201312 yr by zKars

The combo switch connects the ground for the wiper motor. So, if you connect 12VDC+ to one of the positions on the switch and turn on the switch, you will always blow a fuse.

Now for the rest, I assume you have a pre-73 wiper motor and no amplifier.

Take a look at the 72 wiper circuit.

Note that the 12VDC+ goes from the fusebox to the wiper motor via the blue/red wire at the B terminal.

The L, M, and H terminals are connected to ground at the combo switch.

The L & M terminals connect to ground at position 1.

The M & H terminals connect to ground at position 2.

So if I don't miss my guess (using the 78 wiring diagram for the combo switch)...

The yellow/green on the combo switch should go to the M terminal.

The yellow/black on the combo switch should go to the L terminal.

The blue/yellow on the combo switch should go to the H terminal.

The washer is trickier since it is wired completely different from the 70-72 as opposed to the 73-78 wiring.

SteveJ:

Thanks for taking the time to explain it more to me. My setup is a little different - I'm using a 280Z switch with the Honda wiper motor upgrade. I spent the day working through it and have made some - just a little - progress.

Due to the painless harness, I'm not using the ground on the combo switch - that's what was causing the fuse to blow as you had stated. Currently, I have low speed wipers working. The problem is that the wipers are parking in the up position and I have no high speed.

I'm using the write up on the Honda upgrade as my pattern, but something isn't right. The way that the write up suggests wiring the high speed is directly to the Honda motor, not through the relay. I'm not sure I understand why. It seems that the high speed should be run through the relay as well, right?

Any further thoughts? I appreciate the help you've given me already.

Bryan

Dat240zg

Don't you think that the Honda wiper motor was a critical detail for your first post.

The relay is just for parking. You pass through low speed before going to off, hence the reason to use that wire to the relay.

Here is the issue as I see it. The Nissan and Honda wiper motors are wired to be grounded through the combo switch. The wires that are grounded dictate the speed. The wiper motor does not get its feed through the switch. So you would have to bench test and re-engineer the wiring to get it to work with the positive going through the switch.

OR you could make sure you are getting the signal wires from the wiper motor back to the combo switch (as I described above), just as it was designed to do. You would have to provide a 12VDC+ fused source to the wiper motor.

From what I've read, "Painless" is false advertising.

So the reality is that I've been viewing the cirucuit backwards. I'll ditch the painless power feed and start from there. Thanks!

Byan

Im having the same pains you had in 2002 how did you fix the combo switch? I have the same colors on switch as you did and a honda motor I just cant get to work.

Steve

I'm having the same problem as Bryan painless is not so painless I'm giving up on the Honda motor and using a 1977 280 motor question is how to make it all work like factory with painless single wire?? Please school me .

Are you planning on using the stock amplifier for the windshield wipers? If not, you can't. If you know how to read wiring diagrams, it's all laid out in the FSM how to make it work. If you haven't already, download the manual from XenonS30 (URL below). In the 1977 FSM, it starts on page BE-60, and that is page 556 of the PDF file. I think there is also a color version of the 1977 wiring diagram at Blue's site, and there may be a color wiring diagram floating around on this site somewhere. I'm not saying it's easy to read the windshield wiper circuits, though. The thing is that the "Painless" kit is probably designed to work for American cars from the 60s. Since intermittent wipers were not in production cars at that time, the painless kit isn't really designed to work with something so "exotic". You might be able to brute force the Honda wiper motor because it doesn't have an intermittent function.

If you're not good with reading wiring diagrams, you could contact Dave Irwin, aka Zs-ondabrain, about doing the wiring, trailer your car to Marysville (if he agrees) and be prepared to spend a few hundred for him to make it work like the factory. Of course, there is a good chance he has more practice at automotive wiring than you, so he could probably make it look very nice and hold up for a long time.

Probably the best solution is to consider the money spent on the painless harness as money flushed down the toilet and contact Oliver at Z Specialties about getting a used wiring harness. I think Z Car Source might have them, too.

Thank you sir for the help, Im getting touch with dave now.

I was tasked to help install a "Painless" wiring harness in the engine bay of a '66 Mustang. Suicide might be painless, but installing one of those generic harnesses certainly is not!

The results, however, given a lot of time and craftsmanship were, however, spectacular. The wiring and looms looked like a million bucks. I am glad, however, I quoted an hourly rate

and not a fixed price.

Jon, I still think a used harness will be the most cost effective solution, even if you get Dave's help. He can also work with you to figure out the best course of action.