I've done a thorough and exhaustive search of both this board and just about everything Google has to offer on the subject and I believe I'm the only person with this specific problem.

I just bought an 88 convertible and it only has 64k miles. The car has lived inside its whole life and not driven in other than perfect weather.

Well, this is my daily driver, and wouldn't you know it... the second day I drive it to work, it rains.

Good news: The wipers work just fine. On intermittent, low and high. Even the mist function works properly as does the adjustable intermittent.

Bad news: The wipers do not park properly. They come down too far and hit the windshield trim, and then come back up about 2 inches before they stop.

Normally, I would just remove the arms and install them a little lower, but these are already going too far down and then coming back up to park or home position.

Now, here's my question, would replacing the relay in the switch fix this or should I look into the contacts inside the wiper motor?

Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

 

probably

 

^ really helpful, lol...



There are two relays for the front wiper control... The fat one and the skinny one.
The fat one is the speed select relay, it switches between high and low speed coils in the motor. You have both high and low speeds, so that's a good one.
The skinny one is responsible for parking. It will keep the wipers moving when the wipers are NOT at the bottom of the glass and the switch is off... It is also responsible for the intermittent function. Intermittent gets the wipers up and then turns off... The park relay returns the wipers to the bottom of the glass. You have intermittent, so that relay should be good too.

However, the wipers do eventually return to the bottom of the glass right?
I'd look into a mechanical issue in this case.

Can you take a video of the problem?

How about this:
-Remove the wiper arms.
-Turn wipers on for a few seconds.
-Turn the wipers off and allow the motor to come to the parked position.
-Reattach the arms at the bottom of the glass in a normal parked position. (May need an inch gap to the bottom edge of the trim.)
-Test again.

 

unbolt the whole wiper arm, use it, and then they will stop in a stock location. bolt it on, and vualla!

 

I didn't want to make a comment about the helpfulness of that first reply, as I appreciate any help I can get on this matter.

I have removed the wiper arms, turned them on and off several times, and reattached the arms. Still does exactly the same thing.

There's no telling what the previous owner might have done to attempt to correct the problem. Is it possible to unbolt the wiper motor from the actuator arms and get it off a couple teeth? It works properly, it just seems to over-rotate before coming to a stop.

I also dis-assembled the cover on the front of the motor and cleaned and sanded the contacts. Coated it all with di-electric grease when finished. Still no change.

Here's a video on YouTube of my wipers so you can all see what's going on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z7KIMj89gA


HALP!!!

 

try removing the wiper arms, and attaching them back on ( in a new position where they are as low as possible) without turning the wipers on.

 

at least it works swingdancer. Mines broken ever since day 1 I had the car. RainX is the solution lol cereal

 

That is really weird...

Try this:
-Remove hood
-Remove black aluminum cowl parts (At base of windshield)
-inspect wiper linkage for loose parts
-Remove link to wiper gearbox output shaft
(I don't think you'll be able to reposition it because it's keyed, but you can try.)
-Reinstall link

 

I'll work on that this weekend. Got to do plugs and wires, and an oil change while I'm at it.

I'll report back and let you all know.

 

OK, I dug out all the paperwork on the car from the previous owner and put it all in a binder. I came across a receipt for some work done back in '07 that simply says replace wiper control. So, I decided to call the mechanic, and he actually remembered the car and what he did to it.

Turns out the previous owner bought a new wiper switch and wiper motor off ebay and had this guy install them. He said the wiper actuator arm and wiper motor are both splined.

It appears to me that he didn't get them lined up correctly. I'm going to remove the arm from the back of the motor, turn the motor on and off a few times, to allow it cycle properly and park, and then reattach the actuator arm.

 

Well, I know a mechanic that I'll never take this car to, the one the previous owner used!

After some disassembly, cleaning and inspecting.... this doesn't appear to be the same wiper motor as was originally installed. There's a pattern on the firewall that doesn't match the mounts of the wiper motor that's installed.

I also found out that the connection from the wiper motor to the actuator arm is NOT keyed. It's actually splined like the wiper arms themselves.

After several attempts, I managed to get the motor and linkage lined up properly and everything works perfectly.

Thank you all for your help and I hope this helps someone else in the future.

 

Thanks for posting up the results so people in the future can find answers for their searches.

And post #2 is just trying to get his post count up.