Wiring issue-wipers quit working

[pritch]

I went to go this morning (snowing) and my wipers all of a sudden don't work. The fuse is blown. I put in a new fuse and it blew instantly. So I know I have a dead short somewhere. The thing is, like most, there is some interesting PO wiring been done. I never was too worried about it, because everything worked.

See the two big yellow wires that are attached to the fender?


I always figured that they were something to do with the camper that the PO had. But last week when I was changing my heater core, I needed a little bit of slack in these wires to drop the inner fender and when I unhooked them, I lost all power. I traced these wires and they run to the after market amp gauge, and apparently they also supply power to the whole system. This don't seem right to me. I didn't mess around with any other wires, just hooked these back up. Everything else still works, just the wipers don't.

I have looked at the wiring diagram, and all the other wires involved and I can't see anything that looks shorted out anywhere. Any ideas? I can find the short OK when I have a little more time, but I just don't get why the wipers and nothing else.

[LockDoc]

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Well, it looks like you need to get your test harness out again and check the wiper motor out.... There is no power that goes to the switch so I don't see how it could be shorted out. Are you sure you don't have a wire shorted where the terminals plug into the wiper motor?

Just throwing out some ideas.

LockDoc

[VetteVet]

Originally Posted by pritch

I went to go this morning (snowing) and my wipers all of a sudden don't work. The fuse is blown. I put in a new fuse and it blew instantly. So I know I have a dead short somewhere. The thing is, like most, there is some interesting PO wiring been done. I never was too worried about it, because everything worked.

See the two big yellow wires that are attached to the fender?


I always figured that they were something to do with the camper that the PO had. But last week when I was changing my heater core, I needed a little bit of slack in these wires to drop the inner fender and when I unhooked them, I lost all power. I traced these wires and they run to the after market amp gauge, and apparently they also supply power to the whole system. This don't seem right to me. I didn't mess around with any other wires, just hooked these back up. Everything else still works, just the wipers don't.

I have looked at the wiring diagram, and all the other wires involved and I can't see anything that looks shorted out anywhere. Any ideas? I can find the short OK when I have a little more time, but I just don't get why the wipers and nothing else.

The yellow wire from the fuse panel is powered anytime the key is on unless it is wired from a hot battery source. If you are blowing the fuse when you turn on the key and before you turn the wiper switch to any position then your yellow wire is shorted to ground. This probably happened when you replaced the inner fender although the wiper power should come from the fuse panel and go inside the cab up to the dash and to the wiper motor. It sounds like the PO re-wired the power wire to the wiper along with the amp gauge wires and some power wires.

If you can get to the wiper motor plug then unplug the yellow wire and if you blow a fuse when you turn the key on then the short is in the yellow wire to ground. If the fuse doesn't blow then the problem is in the wiper motor. From what I gather it will be a pinched yellow wire, which you suspect and you'll have to trace it down.

Is your amp gauge a replacement for the stock battery gauge or is it setup so that all the power from the battery and alternator runs through it?

When you get ready to remedy the wiring issues on your truck then post up in the electrical forum and we'll get you fixed up.

[pritch]

OK. I got my wipers working, but I still don't know the problem. For whatever reason, I was getting power to both sides of the wiper fuse. I unhooked the wires from the wiper motor, and that stopped the power going to the wrong side of the fuse. So I plugged the wires back into the wiper part of the motor and left the washer pump part unhooked, and that did it. Washer pump don't work anyway. I guess the wiper motor needs replaced, 'cause there's a short in it somewhere.

[bigbadchev72]

did you unplug the wires from the wiper motor? If so flip it over, It is easy to put the clip in backwards and it is a direct short.

[pritch]

Originally Posted by bigbadchev72

did you unplug the wires from the wiper motor? If so flip it over, It is easy to put the clip in backwards and it is a direct short.

I kinda wonder if I did that when I changed the wiper motor, but that was last summer. Strange that it would wait until now to short out. Maybe I didn't have it quite plugged in all the way and I bumped it into place when I was messing around with my heater control cables.