Vannin' Home Forums Dodge Troubleshooting (Dodge) Windshield Wiper Wiring

Wiring is not my strong point, and chasing electrical demons in my '73 has been challenging for me. I recently had all of the electrical in the dash apart and when I put it back together my windshield wipers quit working (they were working before). I have a voltmeter and checked for power at the wiper motor and found that some wires had power and some didn't, depending on the position of the control switch.

I have some pictures here to show what I'm talking about:

Here is the van in question.


Here is the wiper control switch. Why is there one extra connector with nothing on it?


Here is the wiper motor itself. Don't know if this pic helps any.


I aslo found with my volmeter that the fuse slot on the far left of the fuse panel has no power, and it's not a blown fuse issue. I don't know if this is related or not. It says it is for the instruments



Any help on fixing the wiring issue is appreciated. If I can't figure this out too soon, then I'll have to find a competent wiring guru in the Lafayette, IN area...

see that ceramic block with a wire on each end? the one bolted to the wiper motor? check that for continuity, On the old Dodges, those ceramic blocks were known to go bad. I used to carry two in each of my cuda, charger, challenger and Ramcharger. other than that, Im callin my mechanic too!

All I know bout letic is don't let the smoke out.A thought or two,is that extra spade terminal on switch a ground connection maybe? Some fuse terminals don't energize until key is on or system is turned on.That instrument fuse may not show hot on either side of fuse until the headlight switch is pulled on.

The extra terminal is hot whenever the ignition is on. I'm thinking maybe it is supposed to be for a washer fluid pump, which I currently don't have on my van.

I'll check that block for continuity and see what that gets me. Does anyone know how I could just hotwire the motor straight up to make sure that it is still good? I replaced that motor within the last year, so I don't really think it's the issue but I want to make sure.

I checked the block and it has good continuity. I rechecked power getting to the motor and it seems like it should be working. I'm going to go see if the motor is under warranty and replace it. Hopefully I'll get lucky.

I replaced the wiper motor and it works now. Aparently the remanufactured unit I put in last year burned up somehow. It was under waranty.

I think the fuse one the far left of the panel only gets power when the lights are on, so that was why I wasn't getting any voltage on it when I was checking everything.

With my wipers working and no other noticible wiring demons I'm back on the road and ready for the rain! Thanks for your help.

Glad to see you got it figured out. I was gonna dig out my manual and scan you a pic of the schematics. Could you of possibly burnt the motor out when you hooked the power back up? Seems odd it worked before you messed with the electrical, then it quit working. A lot of the reman parts don't last long. I used to work at a garage, and seen alternators, starters, water pumps, etc, that didn't last 30 days and needed replaced.

I have a Chiltons manual and it has a windshield wiper diagram in it, but it just shows four wires going from the switch to the motor, with no useful descriptions on what wires do what (at least to my limited understanding).

Even I have a little good luck every now and again.

Go on Ebay and buy a factory service manual. You'll be glad you did.


BTW, the wiper motor grounds to the body via the mounting bolts. That may have been the problem with the old motor. One way to determine if a bad ground is the problem, is to turn the wiper switch on and then take a jumper wire from the NEG terminal on the battery to the body of the wiper motor. If the motor works, then you know you have a bad ground....mainly from rust or corrsion forming over the years. My 72 Maxi van had the optional electric washer pump. It was actuated by pushing the switch in.