wipers dont park right

got 4 inches of wet snow today and the wipers got stopped by a bunch sliding off the roof now they dont park right. how does the wiper motor know where to park and how can i make it work right again?

 

Probably the easiest way is to remove the arm and push it back on in the park area you want it.

 

yeah I could but they stop in random places its like they forgot where to park......

 

the ones in my jeep dont park. They just stop where ever I shut them off.

 

Are they still in sync with each other? If not check the wiper arm pivots, if they are then check the wiper motor arm on the gearbox. Park is a circuit inside the wiper motor gear box, if you tried to turn off the wipers with a heavy snow load on them they would have tried to park conceivably damaging the park contacts inside the gearbox. By the way did yours park with the blades straight up? Mine does and has for the 18 yrs I've owned it.

 

There is a switch in the wiper motor that determines where the motor will park.

Here's what's inside the motor:



There's a gear (that was melted in my original motor - can't find it) with carbon brushes that bridge the copper traces on the circuit board. I suspect this is where your problem is. In my motor, the stalled motor got the brushes hot and melted their mounts, so that the brushes no longer contacted the copper traces.

The wiper motor has 4 connections: ground (through the windshield), park, and two motor speeds. So 3 wires go to the motor. I would check to see that the motor plug is getting power all the time to one lead (the park circuit) and that the other 2 leads get power (one, then both) for the two speeds. Then I would take the motor apart and look at the gear and circuit board shown above.

 

Dave they used to park to the right.and yes they are still in sync,they were running when stopped by the snow. Tim thanks that's what i wanted to know... i guess i will have to rip into the motor and see whats up the cover bolts are looking scary hope they come out without too much attitude

 

Another thing I learned from this - if you leave the windshield down in the rain, water will puddle in the wiper cover. The wiper cover keeps water out from above, with the windshield up, but not when the windshield is down.

Hard to tell what really caused the meltdown, but my original motor was definitely underwater for a long time.

 

is there a source for gears or other parts I may need?