"...give me a clue..."

Jack, I need a clue from you. A 240?

If so, the wiper relay is tucked behind a metal panel that's located at the extreme left of the driver's floor, about where the hi-lo button was on your cherry '55 Chevy.

If you peel down the top of the carpet and look, you'll see several harnesses coming down from under the dash and disappearing behind this 5" wide sheet metal panel. Grab them and pull up -- the relay (or relays if a wagon) are plugged into the harness and they're tucked behind this panel. The front wiper intermittent relay is black, and it's wrapped in plastic foam. (Rear wiper relay is white if a DL and blue if the int wiper on a GL.)

The way these relays are normally oriented, any leakage through the firewall or around the windshield can dribble down the harness and into the relay. A flooded relay will totally misbehave (hell, the wipers might run continuously). However, the relay can be opened, cleaned, dried, resoldered, and reinstalled.

Every 240 (at least past 1980) has a front wiper relay, so if yours is toast, get one from a boneyard for $1.

Tuck the relay up under the dash so water can't drip into it. Avoid the wiper linkage.

Soldering tutorial (click here).