Windshield Wipers won't work

[PaulRandall]

Hi.

I'm putting together a 1980 Fiat 2000 FI, alot from parts in boxes. I connected the 6 wires going to the wiper motor assembly and it didn't work. I had another wiper assembly and laid it in the cowl area, wired it and it worked. Then I installed it to the cowl, connected it to the wiring, and it didn't work. I don't know why it doesn't work now, when it did work at first.

I used a test light and got the following:

Steering Wheel Lever Position Sweeprate switch Results

Up left and right All 6 wires off but blue/black on
Middle (Click noise under dash) left and right All wires blink, but blue/black is on
Down left and right All 6 wires on

1. Does anyone know if these results are as they should be, and if not, what should be done?
2. If the wiring results are correct then I guess I need a new motor?

Thanks,
Paul

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Make sure that your ground wire is indeed grounded. On the earlier spiders, this was a black wire grounded to the outer stud for the coolant overflow tank bracket. I'm not sure on an '80 spider but it's probably similar.

Also, make sure that your wiper mechanism (the levers/rods that spin the two spindles for the wiper blades) is not frozen. A common occurrence, and the fix is taken it apart and lubricating. The spindle housings themself often seize up, and the solution there is to slowly dribble oil down the shaft until they rotate freely. Sometimes letting it sit overnight. And sometimes they are so badly frozen that a new assembly is needed.

Another possibility is that the "park" mechanism on the motor gear assembly has gotten out of sync, so the motor thinks it's in park when it shouldn't be.

-Bryan

[uncahoo]

18Fiats has good troubleshooting advice. Be sure to verify that you have a good ground! On a Renault R10, the grounding was through the motor assembly's mounting screws. It was intermittent, but worked flawlessly after putting in a dedicated grounding wire. Also, you may wish to wire a direct connection to 12v power to verify that the motor itself actually works. But your temporary hookup of another working wiper motor kinda says that the original motor may be part of the problem. Good luck! P.S. I have to keep the shaft on my Jeep's rear wiper well-oiled for it to work.

[Emersonfiat1977]

Mine would not worked until I ran a second Power wire to ignition.


I believe it was called the brown wire fix?

Good luck

[reidyyz]

A frozen mechanism will also lead to the metal screwjack output from the motor to grind and chew the plastic gear that spins the rotating output arm that imparts the back and forth of the wiper arms. In my case, it chewed the gear in one spot only, so when parked in that spot, it failed hard. I changed the gear ($70), lubed the mechanism ($2) and it was good to go. Sure beats $200 for a motor assy.

I know you posted from a perspective of wiring issues, but when I ran my motor, it was rather quiet and I first thought it was power/ground issue as well. But eventually, that lead me to the gear.