I've let my poor lady get a little to neglected for a while with not driving her much and I'm being repaid this spring with a bunch of new problems cropping up while getting her sorted out to drive more or sell.

I just discovered that it seems my wiper motor has gone caput. At almost the same time, I've also lost my turn-signals!? I'm wondering if these two items may be on the same circuit somehow?

The story is that when I went to turn on my wipers while I was parked and engine running, they moved just a little bit, then quit. It >seems< like about the same time, the signals went out. I've checked my fuses and the ones that are in there are all fine. There is one missing, but the car has always worked without it..?

Anyway, I looked around under the dash to see if I could locate any shorts or other clues, and the only thing I could find was that the wiper motor was quite warm to the touch. I tried experimenting and it seems like the wiper motor is getting warm with or without the key-ignition turned to the electrics-on position...?

I do have a spare motor which I tried plugging in via the connectors on the back of the switch, but that did not work. That motor was pulled from a parts car and was not verified to ever work however. Any tips on how to verify if one's working out of the actual car would be great.

So.. does anybody have some input or clues as to what I should look for?

Theo;

Wipers and Directionals are on the same (fuse 1 ) circuit...if wipers moved, then stopped, there's a good chance it is a supply problem...like a Fuse 1 open (but this would have been accompanied by a fully lit AMP Indicator) wiper motors don't just quit like that...and they do run very toasty normally...check other Fuse 1 loads...I expect they will also be unavailable...see also: http://www.sw-em.com/AMP_Indicator_ON.htm

Cheers

Thanks for the information Ron. After having had it sit for quite a while, I just charged up the battery and took it for a test drive last night and uncovered another problem which seems to be related to what you're pointing at in your reply. I took it out at night and had the headlights on. I was not paying attention as I should have to the amp light, but I found that when I returned home, I did not have enough juice left in the batter, indicating that something is also going on with the charging system, or some fuse.

All my fuses seemed to be intact though, but there's some funky business going on in there. Somebody wired in a glass fuse over one terminal, and one side of the second one down doesn't even seem to have anything attached to it on one side?

It's clear I'm going to need to sort this mess out...

Can one replace those little cheap plastic fuses with the more durable glass ones? Also.. one of my fuses, up top, is about half the length of the other ones. I'm not even sure I could find one in that length, as some places don't seem to even sell this style fuse any more?

Thanks for more input if you've got it.

I wanted to post a picture of my funky fuse-box, but can't seem to upload a photo...? What's the trick with that here?

Get out your wiring diagram, check the switch for function....the switches are getting old and may need replacement. I think I managed to open one and fix it....but it was fussy and only for freaks who like spending and hour fixing fiddly stuff.
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Patrick, '68 220, '92 Eurovan , '53 PD4104 (highway coach conversion).