Wipers not mission capable

[socal1200r]

Okay, so we just had this severe storm here in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. I took the MJ out to get an inspection, because the PO lost the pink inspection document that I need in order to get a base decal. It's still raining pretty good, so I turn on the wipers and they're working fine. So I get the inspection done, and I'm heading home, when all of a sudden the wiper arms stop in mid-wipe, and no amount of fiddling with the wiper switch is getting them to budge. So I slow down a little and made it home. I noticed that when I rotate the switch to "mist", it looks like the arms want to move, but then only budge maybe a mm or two, and stay right there in the middle of the windshield. So I rotated the switch to "low", and gave the arms a little push downwards, and they went all the way down on their own. But, they went to go back up, and stopped in mid wipe again. So I got them back down, and rotated the switch to the "off" position.

 

I figured since they're somewhat working, it's not a fuse. But I checked the fuse box anyway, and to my surprise I didn't see a fuse specifically for the wipers. So I'm at a loss now as to what's wrong with my wipers. I have a funny feeling I'm not going to like the responses as to what's wrong, like having to remove the wiper arms, remove the cowl, see if the arms are binding on anything, etc. I did a search on "wiper arms", and found some helpful comments about how to remove the wiper arms and install new bushings, but that's about it.

 

Any helpful hints, especially of the visual kind, would be great...

[dasbulliwagen]

You at the very least need to take the cowl off to see what is happening. It could just be bad bushings and on low when you push them they are able to catch enough to pull back down, but not do this on high, and fall back out when they go back up.... Let us know what you find out.

[Carl'sMJ]

:agree: It could be bushings or another problem with the linkage (bent, broken, rusted out)... You'll definitely need to take the cowl off and check it out. Removing the wiper arms and cowl isn't that much work to figure out what is wrong.

 

It might be a good opportunity while you're in there to swap the bushings if the wipers were sloppy at all... and a chance to clean up under the cowl.

[Pete M]

there's a writeup on bushing replacement in the DIY forum. :thumbsup:

[mfpdm]

If it turns out you need to replace the linkage or the motor, come on over and I'll give you the whole assembly. Think I have 3 or 4 in my pile of parts.

 

By the way, wheels look good. :thumbsup:

 

:cheers:

[james750]

Wipers use a circuit breaker, not a fuse it is located at the right side of the fuse box. This isn't your problem if you are getting voltage at the motor. I would pull the cowl first. Its pretty easy to remove but you will need a torx bit to remove the linkage.

[socal1200r]

If it turns out you need to replace the linkage or the motor, come on over and I'll give you the whole assembly. Think I have 3 or 4 in my pile of parts.

 

By the way, wheels look good. :thumbsup:

 

:cheers:

 

If it stops raining long enough tomorrow, I'll try removing the wiper arms and cowl, and seeing if anything jumps out at me as to why they're not working right. Thanks for the assist, and I'll let you know if I have to take you up on it!

[socal1200r]

Long story short...followed the DIY thread about replacing the wiper arm bushings, removed the wiper arms and wiper arm assembly, checked the bushings, and ended up replacing the washer nozzle tubing. It looked like the main nozzle hose was getting wedged between the driver side wiper arm and the cowl. Replaced the tubing, new "T" fitting, routed the hoses under the wiper motor and away from the wiper arms, and everything seems to be working fine now. While I had the wiper arm assembly on the hood, I checked the bushings, and they looked fine. I checked the arms, and everything looked normal (no rust, odd angles, bends, etc). So I lubed the joints and pressed on.

 

Thanks for the help!