sunflower 1972

Well, when I bought my 72 5 years ago, the wipers never worked. Or so I thought. Being as how I never planned to drive it in the rain anyway, I put that task on the back burner. I then went about doing items that were more important to me, such as aluminum cylinder heads, aluminum intake manifold, shorty headers, distributor, carburetor and suspension. When I first got the car the radio didn't work, so I replaced the radio with a RetroSound Bluetooth. While I was replacing the radio I also broke the manual oil pressure line going to the oil pressure gauge. That was probably a good thing to happen because it was still the original 42 year old line. I recall it was late in the year and I was in a hurry to put everything back together so I could get in some more driving time before winter came. I vaguely recall that I didn't think I connected the wiper switch, but as I stated earlier didn't care because I wasn't going to be driving it in the rain anyway. About a week ago I decided it was time to try and get the wipers going, as I've gotten all the other items that were more important to me done. So, last Tuesday, I started doing searches on the Forum regarding inop wipers. Boy, are there a lot of threads regarding wipers on the 68 to 72 C3's! Wednesday I removed the wiper switch plate and sure enough, I did not connect the switch. Long as I had it out I tested it and everything was good with the switch. Did more research on the Forum, read about the override switch below the steering column. So, Thursday I went out to the garage and checked the override switch and sure enough, it was in the off position. I moved it back to the on position. While I was there I pulled down on the wiper door override lever and the door didn't open, not realizing at the time that it required vacuum in order to open. I found that out when I spent Thursday evening doing a little more research. So I'm thinking I got a vacuum problem regarding the wiper door, and I still don't know if the wiper motor even works. Fast forward to this morning. I usually take it out for a quick Sunday morning ride. While I'm sitting there waiting for the engine to warm up, I pulled down on the wiper door override switch and I'll be damned, the wiper door comes up! While I had the wiper door up, I flipped the wiper switch to the low position, and lo and behold the wipers are working ! Flipped the switch to high, they work! So now I turn the wipers off and close the wiper door via the over ride lever and go for my sunday morning drive, thinking I've got a vacuum issue with the wiper door. I don't know why I didn't try this earlier, but when I get home and pulled into my garage, I decided to turn the wiper switch to low. Yes, you guessed it they worked fine. Moved it too high, and they work. Yay for me! I just don't understand why I decided to over-think this wiper problem and decided it was a major issue. Must be my old age!

Jstan2014

That IS a good wiper story. I’m glad it was a simple fix, Even if it took five years. Congrats!

Daveinspain

Live and learn... You will learn a lot here. Corvettes are a very unique car and nothing is normal... I can’t think of any other car that relies so much on vacuum or why they designed it that way. There must be a good reason though. I mean why not just have electric motors control the head lights and wipers?

Rescue Rogers

Congratulations on a great story and an easy fix. Those are the best kind.

I had a similar problem this past weeeek. My wipers suddenly stopped working which I had straightened out a few years ago. So I started pulling the shielding off the distributor so I could check all my connection. I opened up a Willcox wiring diagram for voltages and there was the override switch. Oh crap, I had been crawling under the dash looking at other problems and forgot about the switch. I just gave it a little twist and it turned about a 1/4 inch, it had moved just enough to break the connection, boom , I got wipers. YAAY, now I gotta put the sheilding back on........poop