Wiper skipping/stopping

[RickTheEngineer]

Hey all, I wanted to discuss a wiper problem I have been having, but hear me out. My wipers are slow as heck, sometimes they do not even move. But let me tell you what I did thus far....

-Replaced with new wiper motor (4 times)
-Cleaned all grounds
-Made my own ground
-Checked fuse box
-Cleaned all leads
-Capacitor bypass
-Cleaned windshield
-Removed cowl, greased all linkages with lithium grease.
-Installed new wipers

After doing all this, here is what I am left with... The wipers move darn flawlessly, dare I say FAST when the windshield had some glass cleaner left on it. However the wipers skip and shudder violently soon after and the resistance that is caused from the rubber of the wipers onto the glass is crazy. It appears to have high resistance, although I do not know if this is exactly the problem so take it with a grain of salt. I have to move the wipers by hand while the wiper motor struggles. I thought it was a residue on the glass so I cleaned it, only to find that the problem stayed the same if not worse. I am considering using rainx but that seems to make the problem worse according to some people. The wiper motor overheats very frequently now, and I am left struggling to understand why. I have good voltage coming from the leads, nothing wrong there. Everything works great when the windshield is slick, maybe first wipe. I just cannot figure this one out. What wipers are you all using? Thanks folks.

 

[Tinstar]

So after the first few wipes, with windshield still wet, it does this?


AMCO blades here
My wiper motor will barely move when the water dries off.
Its just not as powerful at today's Motors.
I also have completely disassembled linkage and greased everything.
Also run a ACDelco wiper motor assembly with ground.
It all works fine and has never been, and never will be, like my newer trucks.

New blades help.
Rainx does help, in my experience. It closes the pores..so to speak, on the windshield and makes it smoother. Takes more than application.

I have not felt the temp of wiper motor after use so no clue if it gets hot or not.

 

[The FLU farm]

I don't think I've ever tried any wipers on a dry windshield, but how do your wipers work under the conditions they are supposed to work in; a wet windshield?
Rubber and glass have a lot of friction when dry.

 

[RickTheEngineer]

I have an ACDelco wiper motor myself. I have rainx wipers (the kind that had the standard 6 points on the blade, not the single curved piece). They wiper so we'll that there's no Trace of water left, which results in the friction being very high, sometimes even on the first wipe. Obviously when there is less water on the windshield it gets far, far worse. Sometimes it just stops and doesn't move. Then of course it still sends current to the wiper motor since it tries to return to the parking location, but that causes it to get so hot it just turns off. It's kind of frustrating because I feel like it used to be better back in the day, but it was always weak so it could just be me. also, any light snow on the windshield? Forget it haha. I wish I had a video of it because the skips are literally like 2 inches. Pretty crazy stuff. I can try to claybar the window, but that feels excessive.

 

[someoldmoose]

Does it have interval wipers or just off - low - high? These years have a control box under the column that will do all kinds of goofy things. Other GM vehicles have the same issues but the "pulse module" is in various places. Look on the bottom of the steering column just below the gauge cluster. If you see a box with fins (like a heat sink) that's probably your Gremlin. My '86 Suburban went through 3 of them in 15 years of solid service.

 

[RickTheEngineer]

Mine do not have wiper delay. It's just on and off (high and low). After working on the truck some more here are my latest findings. I made a ground on the purple wire (low speed ground) on the wiper motor and suddenly it brought back some gusto. It had better strength (still slow has heck, but a step in the right direction). And I traced it back to what might be a bad wiper switch in the steering column. No beuno. Might have to look into replacing that thing. I wonder, how low is everyone's wipers when the truck is sitting, not running on the low setting? On high, most of the time it doesn't even move. I think it's a bad ground, but even after making one it's still pretty pathetic, even by 80's standards.

 

[someoldmoose]

The switch IS the most likely culprit after the "pulse module" which you don't have. Grounding the purple wire made up for the ground through the switch. Are you choosing wires following the diagram ? Make sure you use the diagram. If you can jumper the wiring at the motor (don't remember which ones off hand ) you will know if it's the switch or wiring, or something binding or bad in the drive system. My Suburban on high cycled about twice a second, out and back ( 80's standards ? ) so any less than one swipe (both directions) per second is less than adequate.

 

[RickTheEngineer]

I was using a basic diagram I found off Google. I get about one wipe every 6 seconds when dry, maybe once every 2 seconds when wet. And that's ONE WAY. So double that for the wipers to actually return. When I removed the wipers the linkages felt decent to me (moved it side to side by hand) but when I had the cowl off, I noticed that with even the smallest amount of resistance I add to the linkage the wiper motor just stalls, which leads me to thing it isn't getting much juice from the system.

 

[glcaines]

I had a Ford F150 that had the same symptoms as you. I was convinced the problem was the motor after I eliminated wiring as the problem. The problem turned out to be a bad switch.