I got stuck in a heavy downpour in the mountains and my windshield wipers couldn't keep up, then they stopped working altogether, and of course I couldn't see anything. To make matters worse, I installed a heater by-pass gate valve and it was turned to the 'summer' position, so my defroster wasn't working either. Then, just to make things dangerous, with all my electrical systems taxed to the limit, my electric windows wouldn't open so I could not even see the road stripes out the side windows! The Da** Semi Trucks wouldn't slow down, and, well, I got it to the side of the road. Safely. Got a towel for the windshield, waited an hour and a half, crawled under the car and switched the heater cut off valve back on. I'm telling you this so you don't get killed and can do a precautionary measure while it's still safe and dry....
If it looks like rain, turn the heater by- pass valve back on to 'winter' position.
I installed a 100 Amp alternator so ALL Sytems WOULD Function in this worst case scenario.
My wiper motor was pulled out of the car and would not function, so I pulled it apart. The motor sits at the bottom and a mechanism casing sits on top. The mechanism casing has a screw drive gear that operates a gear in a circular motion. The gear has a 0.25" shaft that is off-centered. The stiff cable that goes to the wipers through a cable-housing is attached to this 0.25" shaft. The housing for this mechanism holds the cable onto the shaft. The gear spins on a bushing that is in the housing. This bushing on my unit was seized tight, with corrosion.
So I got a punch and drove the gear out of the housing. Then I got some fine sandpaper and polished the center shaft of the gear and cleaned the corrosion off the bushing in the housing with coiled sandpaper the best I could. I put some fine oil which I got from Radio Shack (so it wouldn't interfere with the electric motor if it dripped down in there) on the two parts (bushing & shaft). I reassembled it and re-installed it.
Well it works again, but still not that well, unless I just have one windshield wiper on. So, both my wipers are off and in the front trunk. If it looks like it may rain and I'm already on the road, I'm gonna pull off, install one wiper, turn the heater shut-off valve on, and continue on down the road.
But, I am going to have to do this job again, because I saw rust in the windings and casing of the wiper motor, and I didn't address the problem then. I'm gonna take the motor apart and clean the rust off so it works closer to new than it does now. The brushes looked fine though and there was no hot spotting or burned spots, so, just more cleaning and sandpapering.
And this time, I'm gonna pull the electric leads off the motor and clean them better because I want clean electrical contacts and these things were sprayed with a tar like rust-proofing material, 30 years ago.
Also, I picked up some Rain-X for coating the outside of the windshield and a different type of Rain-X for coating the inside of the windshield to prevent fogging.
Hope this doesn't happen to you, but it's a 30 year old car, and some of these things have never been maintained at all. Not being able to see while driving is scary experience....
An afternoon project with near zero dollar cost that could save your life!
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