swag

I have a '68 corvette and know that the wiper wiring is a bit different from later versions.

The wiper system is working except for the wiper solenoid and washer pump. The previous owner bypassed the solenoid and wired directly to the override vacuum valve.

To operate the wipers, I have to push in the valve which opens the wiper door. Then, I can get the wipers to work at the center console.

When I got under the dash, the wiper solenoid was broken at the vacuum tube connector so I got a new one thinking this would fix everything. I changed the vacuum for the solenoid per Willcox spec.

It didn't work. i.e. when I turned the wiper to on, it didn't open the wiper door.

One thing with the '68 is that at this point if I don't let the wipers run one cycle (back to park) it drains my battery within a day.

Now, the problem, I see one of the previous owners had the wiper motor rebuilt. Whomever did it didn't stick to the correct color scheme; however, I think I traced it and have most things figured out.

My question now is that this appears to be a total electrical issue since the wipers work with the bypass of the solenoid, what can I do to find the issue?

I am afraid to touch any of the wires connected because I don't want to take a step back and not have them work at all.

Thanks for your help!

Rescue Rogers

if they rewired a 68 system, its gonna be tough to figure it out. I would take a 68 schematic, see if everything is wired the same and start testing the components. I had something similar happen with Bubba fixing my system. I replaced the motor and got an old working swtich and tested and replaced the rest from from there. The 68 always has power and different power supplies. And it has has multple ground interupts. Most people put power to the switch when it is actually swtiching the ground around.

theres a service bulletin that describes trouble shooting tips for the 68 that helps to describe what should be happening. Find that and get the Willcox bench test for 68. If its been rigged to work like a 69 or later I would buy a new motor. Make sure they put in 68 only components. The door solenoid in the fender fails and wont open the door. You could test that first. It has 2 vacuum sources, the main always on vacuum to open the door and the swithced vacuum from the solenoid on the tach. Mine had a small leak internally that took a while to locate

swag

Hi, RR. I finally got a chance to look at the issue. I put a voltmeter on the brown wire (enables wiper solenoid to open the door) and ground to see what it was getting.

Looks like it is fluctuating between 0 amp to 2.5 amps From what Willcox says this should be a consistent 12 amps.

Noticed that when it fluctuated the wiper motor was pushing the blades up and down. Not sure if this matters, but the wiper motor seems loose as it was moving around quite a bit.

Seems like there is a bad short in the wiper motor, right?

I found previous owners information and it looks like they had the wiper motor rebuilt a while back. Could be a bad job on it.

Thanks

Rescue Rogers

good job, us posted