Wiper - park function not working
Printed From: The Ford Torino Page
Category: Model Specific Forum
Forum Name: 1972-1976 Ford and Mercury
Forum Description: Technical discussion for 1972-1976 Ford and Mercury
URL: https://forum.grantorinosport.org/forum_posts.asp?TID=5453
Printed Date: 22-April-2024 at 9:30PM
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.06 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Wiper - park function not working
Posted By: Eliteman76
Subject: Wiper - park function not working
Date Posted: 04-May-2011 at 5:59AM
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OK. Looking for advice:
Replaced my fried wiper motor.
The wiper park function, is not working with the motor I have now.
For those unsure of what I mean, on every Torino I have owned, the wiper setup on the 72-76 when turned on, will raise up like 6 inches, then proceed to work.
I had swapped motors, and I can't get the park function to work now.
I have tried three different wiper delay sets, at least two standard switches and nothing, all act the same.
Would this be related to the contact block in the wiper motor itself?
I thought the wiper motor I had had a different crank assembly, but comparing the two side by side, not the case.
-------------  Andrew:GTS.ORG admin, '72 Q code 5 speed RestomodPondering: #99Problems |
Replies:
Posted By: Psquare75
Date Posted: 04-May-2011 at 6:06AM
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Check the ground strap between the plastic cover, motor, and case. They usually corrode, and the wipers will not park. ------------- Paul 77 XR7 460/C6/3.00:1 *SOLD* 78 XR7 523/C6/3.5:1 79 F100 460/TKO500/3.25:1 'I also have some left over potatoes-I understand you can generate electricity from them'- Foote500 |
Posted By: crispy23c
Date Posted: 04-May-2011 at 6:54AM
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I think there are 2 different wiper motors available - one with the park feature, and one without. Could have sworn I saw that mentioned somewhere... ------------- |
Posted By: picon3
Date Posted: 04-May-2011 at 9:25AM
Logged 
http://www.stangfix.com/testforum2/index.php?PHPSESSID=0dtf7kvljnqiocac162fdt7gb6&action=profile;u=170 - johnpro 
Posted By: Psquare75
Date Posted: 04-May-2011 at 9:38AM
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I had thought the wiper motors were the same 72-79? ------------- Paul 77 XR7 460/C6/3.00:1 *SOLD* 78 XR7 523/C6/3.5:1 79 F100 460/TKO500/3.25:1 'I also have some left over potatoes-I understand you can generate electricity from them'- Foote500 |
Posted By: Eliteman76
Date Posted: 05-May-2011 at 6:25PM
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I have pulled motor off multiple cars, and they all are the same to me.Advanced had the "standard motor" and I got into a debate with the guy at the counter. Perhaps I am not 100% correct, but I sware after working on these cars for nearly 20 years...since I was 13 or so...the standard they had was something I have NEVER seen. I ran the motor again tonight. Park works now. It hits a few spots where it just stops dead. Thinking it is in fact the contact block that is the issue. Probably what happened last year on powertour when the damn things would not shut off. I also had not fully seated the motor down, and 2 bolts were loose. Tightened it down, and no issues now. ------------- Andrew:GTS.ORG admin, '72 Q code 5 speed RestomodPondering: #99Problems |
Posted By: picon3
Date Posted: 14-October-2011 at 3:30PM
Had Old Lazarus out tonight and wouldn't you know it, but the wiper motor wouldn't park. It's never done this before. I have the motor off of the 73 (see below) I demoed the car a couple of years ago. Should I just replace the motor or try to trouble shoot it the one that's already installed? Ideas?
  And I just detailed the motor. Ugh! Maybe it was the gunmetal paint instead of white?  Paul~------------- 1972 GTS 351CJ-4V black/black |
Posted By: Psquare75
Date Posted: 14-October-2011 at 3:56PM
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Clean the ground straps.. You may have painted over them. ------------- Paul 77 XR7 460/C6/3.00:1 *SOLD* 78 XR7 523/C6/3.5:1 79 F100 460/TKO500/3.25:1 'I also have some left over potatoes-I understand you can generate electricity from them'- Foote500 |
Posted By: ilyes
Date Posted: 14-October-2011 at 5:09PM
| mine was working fine before, when i pulled the engine, i removed the motor to paint the fire wall, after that, no way to get the park function to work again |
Posted By: mcford
Date Posted: 14-October-2011 at 5:27PM
+1. I have had this issue before too and the wiper motor ground was the issue. ------------- Mike |
Psquare75 wrote:Posted By: picon3
Date Posted: 15-October-2011 at 2:00PM
Just to be sure, this is the ground strap we're talking about right? It's a copper strip that has an accordian like shape that runs from underneath the plastic cover back to the bolt hole that is one of the mounts to the body. Paul~
 ------------- 1972 GTS 351CJ-4V black/black |
Posted By: 75GranMan
Date Posted: 15-October-2011 at 2:20PM
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Paul,yes that would be the ground strap.John ------------- John 75Gran Torino 4spd  |
Posted By: crispy23c
Date Posted: 18-October-2011 at 4:21AM
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Andy, through Auto Zone, cardone offers (2) different wiper motors for the Torino. 1 concealed and the other not. See link: http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/Wiper-Motor/_/N-9cia0?filterByKeyWord=wiper+motor&fromString=search" rel="nofollow - http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/Wiper-Motor/_/N-9cia0?filterByKeyWord=wiper+motor&fromString=search Hope this helps Chris ------------- |
Posted By: picon3
Date Posted: 18-October-2011 at 12:51PM
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Well, I'm ready to throw in the towel and install one of the other motors that I have. I cleaned everything related to the ground strap and it still won't park. Very odd how it just all of a sudden stopped. I'll test drive the other two to make sure one of them works before I swap it out. Thanks to all. Paul~ ------------- 1972 GTS 351CJ-4V black/black |
Posted By: ilyes
Date Posted: 18-October-2011 at 1:21PM
| on mine, even after cleaning, it wasn't parking, i had to push the wipers down |
Posted By: Eliteman76
Date Posted: 19-October-2011 at 4:10PM
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Paul- This is what I ended up doing. After dissection, the contact block looked to have a bad contact on mine. On powertour, I pretty much could not shut the damn things off in 2010, and then I unplugged them in Tennessee and then the thing died last september on a run to a car show here in Nebraska. I swapped out and cleaned all connections. Working good since then. ------------- Andrew:GTS.ORG admin, '72 Q code 5 speed RestomodPondering: #99Problems |
Posted By: picon3
Date Posted: 25-October-2011 at 9:26AM
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Problem solved. I took the extra unit I had, cleaned it, detailed and installed it and sure enough the park works. It was a good bit of time, but worth it. Here's some photos. Paul~
Here's the finished product. Everything super clean in the contact area/ground strap. Didn't do such a good job with the stamps. Harder than they look to apply, but they're on there.
 Here's the wiper motor dissassembled, regreased with "red and tacky" and down to bare metal after wire wheeling/dremel tool.
 This piece is plastic. I scuffed/cleaned before priming/painting. Made sure to cover all the contact areas so as not to get paint on them.
 Here it is after painting (unfortunately, you can see where the paint rubbed off when attaching the metal ring. ...sigh. It had a stamp of "C1" on it which I reproduced.
 This is either ceramic or plastic; I think it's ceramic. Ended up cleaning it with a dremel tool and a small brush before using duplicolor performance white acrylic enamel on it.  ------------- 1972 GTS 351CJ-4V black/black |
Posted By: ilyes
Date Posted: 25-October-2011 at 9:35AM
| good job, why is that the date don't match? |
Posted By: picon3
Date Posted: 25-October-2011 at 9:58AM
------------- 1972 GTS 351CJ-4V black/black |
Posted By: crispy23c
Date Posted: 25-October-2011 at 11:55AM
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Paul, you are a clever man! And, how did you reproduce the stamp? What other secrets can we unearth through conversations with you?  Do tell...~Chris ------------- |
Posted By: robot9000
Date Posted: 09-April-2013 at 4:38AM
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I just rebuilt my motor because it would not park. The contacts inside were solid black from arcing over the years. If you take it apart, you will find two flat copper contacts with a spring in the center. Take them out (They are under a white plastic mechanism that rocks back and forth to engage the contacts and engage park). Here are mine before I cleaned them up:  I cleaned them up with some Emory cloth. Next I had to CAREFULLY bend the tabs inside the wiper housing to clean their underside. Here they are before I cleaned them up. The tabs above are out as are the springs:  After that I carefully put everything back together. Here are the clean items back together:  Painted the motor and put the whole thing back together. Tested per the shop manual and Voila!! It parks !! I'll put the new trans I got from Mike in and bolt in the repaired motor and I should be good to go. I think it was less than 20 min to fix the relay. It took longer to get the motor out of the firewall. ------------- 1973 Gran Torino Sport 2010 Mazda 6 2007 Jeep Wrangler 2011 Damon Daybreak 35BD |
Posted By: GTW
Date Posted: 09-April-2013 at 5:02AM
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How low are they supposed to park? Are they supposed to be perfectly flat? ------------- Griffin 1973 Gran Torino station wagon 1972 Gran Torino 4 Door 1971 Maverick 2 Door |
Posted By: occupant
Date Posted: 09-April-2013 at 8:41AM
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My wipers have a tough time parking and like to pause randomly when operating on low speed. They seem to work OK on high and then I can switch to low after awhile and they'll keep going. When it comes time to park them, I have to turn the wipers on, then turn them off as they are going down, and 1 in 3 times, they will choose to park. I bet my contacts in my wiper motor could use quite a bit of cleaning up. These pictures will help when it comes to what parts to clean up and how to reassemble it, thanks! Black and white drawings and text in a shop manual are helpful but color pictures like this showing how they look dirty and clean are even more helpful! ------------- 08 Uplander LS, 262K, broken again 08 Explorer EB, 195K, for the wife still looking for another something |
Posted By: aquartlow
Date Posted: 09-April-2013 at 10:12AM
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Do yourself a favor and check that the wiper transmission linkage moves freely, I went into my wiper motor/changed out interval wiper governors a few times only to find my linkage was binding up due to lack of lubrication. Just remove the tab that locks the wiper trans linkage to the wiper motor and move the arms/wipers by hand, they should move quite freely. Before finding the actual problem the wipers would stop on the windshield and not park below the hood line, now it works like it should. I couldn't believe how bound up the linkage was, a little carb cleaner on the bushings to clean them out, a few shots of spray lithium grease for lubricating the bushings and all is well now. I hope this helps, Todd ------------- www.supermotors.net/22468 Yeah, It's a Hybrid...It burns gas and tires. No matter how good she looks, somebody, somewhere, is tired of her sh*t. Beauty is skin deep, ugliness goes clear to the bone. |
Posted By: robot9000
Date Posted: 10-April-2013 at 2:15AM
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I painted the new wiper trans and installed that yesterday, remounted the wiper motor and tested it. Works like a Champ !!! I painted the wiper arms yesterday and hope to put them in tonight. So if your wipers won't work properly, for less than an hour of your time, you can't beat it. ------------- 1973 Gran Torino Sport 2010 Mazda 6 2007 Jeep Wrangler 2011 Damon Daybreak 35BD |
Posted By: aquartlow
Date Posted: 10-April-2013 at 3:12AM
Nice work on cleaning the contacts, they can be a trouble area and a little tricky sometimes to reassemble correctly. Glad to hear to got everything working properly  . Todd------------- www.supermotors.net/22468 Yeah, It's a Hybrid...It burns gas and tires. No matter how good she looks, somebody, somewhere, is tired of her sh*t. Beauty is skin deep, ugliness goes clear to the bone. |
Posted By: BackInBlack
Date Posted: 30-April-2016 at 1:56AM
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I've been debugging the same problem now on my 73. Similar diagnosis...wiper wouldn't park. Would stop mid windshield or after multiple switch tries would get close to park. Called blue oval for a replacement thinking it was the wiper clutch that was the problem. After receiving the used wiper motor (was in rough shape. Looked like it was dropped a couple times. Cracked cover and a mount broken.) I installed it to try..and viola... worked. Sat at a bench and swapped parts between mine and the used replacement. First the cover with the switches, etc and tried both my original and the used replacement the original wouldn't work (I'm doing this because my original is in stellar shape as compared to the used replacement) Also, the wipers run run fast in the slow switch position and slow in the fast switch position. After closer inspection between the two I notice my original wiper motor end cap on the electric motor was in the different position than the replacement. Popped the retainer clip and rotated teh end cap and it clicked into a notch in the motor case. Next I rotated teh motor so the orientation would match the replacement part (this shouldn't matter but did it anyway). Now it works perfectly fine. It appears that this motor was assembled wrong from the factory and the original owner lived with this for 30+years until I bought it from him. There were no apparent signs of removal or disassembly. No scratch marks, dirt not disturbed, bolt heads had no marring from tools, etc. I'm glad this is over. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with the mechanism or internal switches. Nothing made any sense. Now I have to see if i can return the replacement part.
------------- -John 1973 GTS |
Posted By: damienewyorker
Date Posted: 02-May-2019 at 5:12PM
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I'm going through the same problem too looking forward to reading this thread. ------------- 73 Gran Torino Wagon - 351C 68 Ranchero - 302W 72 F250 - 390W |
Posted By: BackInBlack
Date Posted: 04-May-2019 at 4:45AM
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I found the switch contact inside the wiper motor was different. I dont remember what I did to fix it but I had to trace everything in the electrical circuit from the switch all the way to the wiper motor. I found that the switch and wiring were correct in my car, but the wiper motor wasn't assembled correctly. I also found the rebuild unit was not correct for my year Torino. I basically fixed my original unit. I think these reman units are probably from multi-year Torino LTDs, etc. and you get whatever they have on teh shelf. ------------- -John 1973 GTS |