Do your wipers have their own mind?
So you're driving along, its a clear day with no hint of rain and your wipers start to work slowly. Startled, you reach over and push the wiper control down and the wipers slam back down as if they were trying to run off but you caught them and they jumped back to where they were supposed to be-- kinda like your dog jumping off the sofa when you walk into the room. Whats that all about and how can you stop it from happening? I mean you can't very well put them on restriction, tie them to a tree or take their allowance away--- hey they are wipers and they are supposed to sit up on the front of your coach till you need them-- I mean whats their problem anyway!
I renovate many dashes, do my best to make
all of the old parts work, replace those that are dead and add many new things
to make them look better and be more convenient. One of the mods, actually
one of the more involved jobs is cosmetically renovating the dash and adding
Custom Instrument Panels "Mac Daddy" big dash.
When completed, this makes for an awesome custom look but there are many steps
and many modifications to make this install solid and reliable, one of the mods
is that the wiper control switch and cable calls for a relocation of both the
switch itself but also the routing of the cable.
Our story begins here, as many things I've
learned about, with an unexpected result from this installation. The wiper
control cable is a very unique and one of a kind control not only being a
variable speed control for a hydraulic wiper motor but also does this control
using a spring loaded locator ball to hold the control at the desired setting.
You must be very careful with this assembly in that there are no new
replacements. This is one of those "obsolete" pieces and a rare part to find.
Whenever I have this assembly out during the relocation process, I always clean
them up, lube and work the cable and check the pivot points to be sure they are
in good repair before I reinstall them. This was the case on Jacks wiper
control.
I lubed the cable and made sure it was moving free with no binding. I have
always done this. After the installation we found that the wipers would
make a swipe or 2 on their own as Jack was driving the coach. He called me
and explained that the wipers had not acted that way before I installed his new
dash. I thought about telling him it was a new option I added that the
wipers went on automatically whenever even one bug was squished on his
windshield but I figured he wouldn't buy (just kidding) so he brought the coach in for a look see.
Its a pretty simple mechanical device and other than trying to adjust the 1/4"
hold down screw on the wiper motor itself
there really weren't many other options to repair issues with the system.
I adjusted the cable all of the way out and told Jack to give the coach a drive
and see if the wipers stopped playing around. Going home and back, he said
they stopped their "erroneous emissions" so I figured the trouble was a simple
adjustment but in this position the wiper speed on high -- well was not so
another adjustment was needed. This procedure had yielded positive results in the past as
recently as the week before on Harry's coach so I got jiggy with the adjustment
screw. Jack called the next day and said the wipers were back up to their
old tricks and he really needed to figure out the troubles. I was a bit
irritated myself with this unsophisticated control making me look bad so I
determined I'd rip it's lungs out and do whatever it took to make those blessed
wipers tow the line!
I pulled out the control and cable for some
microscopic investigation.
Everything looked just fine, the funky little ball with its tensioner spring was
in place, the pivot was free and the cable was too. Maybe in cleaning it
up, I had made it so smooth that it would not stay in place. Jack had told
me that he had found that he could push the control down hard and make the
wipers return to off but after a few minutes, the lever would creep up and the
wipers would again play games. Maybe I needed to drag the control through
a mud puddle or something-- hey, every idea was looked at.
But wait--- whats this -- there is a shoulder
in the control casting that limits the motion of the lever, it actually sets the
"off" location of the lever. The problem is it's not allowing the friction
ball to make it to the deep "off" slot. I bet this is supposed to be the
true "off" position
Lets fix that, taking a cut off wheel, I simply cut away the protruding shoulder
back to its flat-- look at this, the lever rests against the flat perfectly and the
locator ball drops deep into the "off" groove
giving a real friction hold to keep the lever in that "off" position. Cool---
looks like someone on the drafting table designed the lever base wrong and the
guys putting them together never caught it. Actually, the only mistake was
in the location of the shoulder protruding off of the flat--- it hit when it was
supposed to hug! Now in the "off" position the ball really does a good job
of holding the lever down. Betcha I lubed up the cable enough where the
internal drag would not hold the lever in "off" anymore, betcha every one of
these out there are doing the same thing and cleaning the cable makes the cable
drift and cause the problem. It had never actually made it to off, only to
"very slow" then they were adjusted to off. Now we have found "real off"
and those pesky wipers should stay where where they are supposed to stay.
In reinstalling the control, I found that the final adjustment was a bit tricky, look at the pic of the adjuster screw above & you'll see that the cable is caught right at the end of the screw. I betcha the guy that determined the cable length used a control lever that was designed wrong which made the cable a bit too long for a good adjustment range-- hey, looks like it to me! Bottom line is the lever drops now into its "off" groove well and the cable seems to be held tightly in that position. I give the designers of the assembly and of the cable itself high marks and the part builder, well how does "The Donald" say it---- YOU'RE FIRED!
Thanks Jack for hanging in with me on this one, just goes to show you--- assume nothing!