Windshield wiper return question
- Thread starter overton
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Nice looking 40!
What is your build date?
My '78 is a 9/77 build (I know you were dying to know that!)
All the posts I have seen on this topic point to the grease inside the regulator getting old and crusty.
When I looked at mine the grease reminded me of the old grease in our Camry's neutral safety switch which wass not functioning correctly. I took that apart and cleaned out the old, crusty grease and reassembled with some di-electric grease. The NSS works well now. Next time I go into my windshield motor regulator I think I will use the same grease.
Good luck!
What is your build date?
My '78 is a 9/77 build (I know you were dying to know that!)
All the posts I have seen on this topic point to the grease inside the regulator getting old and crusty.
When I looked at mine the grease reminded me of the old grease in our Camry's neutral safety switch which wass not functioning correctly. I took that apart and cleaned out the old, crusty grease and reassembled with some di-electric grease. The NSS works well now. Next time I go into my windshield motor regulator I think I will use the same grease.
Good luck!
They're trying not to get too close to the shiny paint.
Oh Snap!
Which direction do they go in when you turn them back on? Do they go to the bottom of the windshield?
- Thread starter
- #6
When you turn them off, no matter where they are, they return to the bottom and then go up to this position. I have been told it may be a ground which makes sense since there is a fresh repaint not to long ago.
If there was a ground problem on the wiring, it wouldn't come on at all. I would pull both blade arms off and turn the wiper on, then off and let the motor return to the park position. Then put the blade arms back on where they need to be in the lower position and see if, when they come on, they make a full sweep, then return to the parked position. There is a printed circuit in the motor housing that the contacts run against that provides the ground for the wiper circuit. Where there is a gap in the circuit board is where the park position exists.
****! Do not do this!
They will drive down into the nice paint, just like I said. The position of the arms on the posts have nothing to do with the extremes of the travel of the posts themselves.
If you're playing with the travel and position of the arms on the posts use some masking tape, not the wiper arms. Only put on the wiper arms once you're sure about the extremes of the travel of the posts.
Eddy, You are wrong about this. If the motor is in the park position, the arms won't go any LOWER than they are when you attach them. You always mount the arms at the lowest position when the motor is parked. What are you thinking?
True if the park position is working correctly. According to the description they're parking in the middle of the windshield, otherwise, working correctly, so they are rotating 45 degrees or so in either direction. They are parking in the middle of their travel, incorrectly. The motor/controller has no idea where you put the arms. They are not keyed, but splined. If you rotate the arms the motor is going to try to drive them down 45 degrees, right off the windshield and down into the cowl, bending the arms and scratching the crap out of the paint.
It is likely a build-up of old gunky grease on the wipers internal to the motor/control circuit.
You are assuming that the arms were originally installed properly and it just quit sweeping the full range. I guess we should ask the OP if the wiper arms EVER ran the full arc, or did someone simply mount the arms in the wrong place when he got the 40. He says the wipers work fine they are just parking in the wrong spot. If they run fine, then it is not a dead spot in the metallic trace on the board.
Scratch all of these suggestions. Dump the wipers and buy some Rain X
I am assuming nothing.
Or, we should read what he wrote:
If this were the case, there would already be scratches in the paint, besides that he said, "they work fine."
Who said there was? I'm not sure what's in there. I don't think it's a board, like in a chevy. In the older above-windshield ones it was brushes contacting the central post. There is a contactor arm that would often break and get wedged down inside the mechanism. Likely something like that going on here.
Coolerman has a good page for the early models and many of the concepts are directly applicable.
http://www.globalsoftware-inc.com/coolerman/fj40/5G.htm
I'm not even sure if the later model ones are serviceable. It must be a pretty reliable part, because I don't see any threads on the later model ones.
I am not familiar with the later model motors, but on an early model, this behavior would be due to a faulty stop switch on the wiper motor - Coolerman and IDave (much longer ago) offered good explanations for how the stop switch works - no idea how it looks in the later motors
- Thread starter
- #15
When you do as suggested, the wipers come half way up and then dive below the glass onto the cowl and stop cold since they cannot make a full sweep.
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- #16
Sorry to say Eddy has predicted the exact behavior. They DO dive down into the cowl and stop. That is what was happening when I got the Cruiser. Fortunately, no scratches to speak of. When (If) I figure it out, I will let ya'll know what the culprit was.
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Yes. The plate has come loose and rotated. I'll see if I can spot the link?
Remove cover, rotate tignten, replace cover.
Remove cover, rotate tignten, replace cover.
Your cover looks as if it has a black spot in the centre. Has someone changed the motor in the past and modified the cover?
Have a look through Coolerman's Wiper Science too as mentioned by Eddy earlier..
http://www.globalsoftware-inc.com/coolerman/fj40/5G.htm
Have a look through Coolerman's Wiper Science too as mentioned by Eddy earlier..
http://www.globalsoftware-inc.com/coolerman/fj40/5G.htm
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- Thread starter
- #20
That's just a little round rubber piece - When new, a 78 and other late model FJ40's had a small rubber plug in the hole on the wiper motor cover. (seldom seen part) This appears to be an attempt to replace that part - The original plug is about half that size and goes in the hole. That thing your looking at is just tacked on with some adhesive.