Has anyone ever had a problem with their wipers only moving about 1 inch up and then back down on the windshield??? I have a 70 Skylark with hidden wipers and I can't seem to figure out what my problem is. I have replaced the entire wiper assembly (in the cowl) thinking that mine was just worn out but it continues to only move up and back one inch on the windshield. I have even replaced the wiper motor and it still does not work. Any ideas?
Long shot, but are you sure they are not hanging up on the back of the hood? With non stock blades (taller) this can happen. Open the hood if you haven't already and see if they work.
Mybe the small arm that connects the motor to the trans in the cowl is mounted in the wrong direction.
Look down inside the cowl section where the linkage & wiper transmission are. You should be able to see the rotating head from the motor where it is connected to the linkage. Disconnect that nut & free it up. Motor should rotate when on. Linkage should be moveable by hand once it's free. You might have something binding in there.
When I disconnect the wiper linkage from the wiper motor the wipers move correctly, once connect to the wiper motor the wipers will only move about an inch up and then back down. I replaced the motor thinking it was the motor but the new one does the same thing that the old one was doing. Has anyone else had a similar problem.
When disconnected from the linkage did the motor rotate once turned on? Make sure you installed the wiring to the wiper motor & washer pump identical to the way it came off.
Check the ground connection at the switch. It will do that if the ground is bad. The switch is mounted to the plastic dash. Stripped or broken switch mounting is common.
After checking the wiper switch one of the four mounting points is broken, would this cause the switch to have a grounding issue, if so does this mean that I need to replace the whole dash bezel?
There should be a black ground wire on the switch, secured by one of the mtg. screws. This is the ground from the switch case to the metal frame in the car. If this mount is broken then yes you could have a grounding issue. Still no reason to replace the bezel, it's plastic & not a conductor. Ensure good contact between the switch case and a ground source. Might be able to use another mount screw location.
Fixing the dash is easy. Just use some JB weld and redrill the mounting holes, or you can even JB weld a small screw to the backside of the dash hole. I've done that in the past. Your ground wire is probably swingin in the breeze down there, and that is your problem.
Thanks for the advice everyone. Turns out the ground wire was dangling behind the dash causing the wipers to act up. I reattached it and it works great now.
when i purchased my 72 gs in 2000, i had to drive thru a rainstorm for about 10 minutes. turned on the wipers to high speed and when the rain volume decreased, i flipped the wiper switch to the low speed setting and the wiper speed remained hi speed. turned off the switch and the wipers continued to run. only way to stop them was to turn the ignition off. the cause was the ground wire was disconnected. another problem i experienced with 2 replacement/rebuilt wiper motors is that the motors did not turn fast enough to allow the little catch arm to grab & lock the wipers into their rest position when the switch is turned off. rebuild usually does not mean replacing the armature nor the field windings.
