Intermittent wipers inop

Got stuck in a rain storm last night for the first time since getting the Wagon. My wipers work fine on low and high but nothing in the intermittent part. As a matter of fact, they wont even come on till you twist it all the way past the intermittent lines then will come on... BUT when you go to turn them off, they will stop in the middle of the windshield until you twist it all the way back to off , past all of the intermittent positions, and then they will come back on to the park position at the bottom of the windshield. Not a huge deal, as I don't plan on driving in the rain and when i do, the low and high will work, but is it an easy fix? Is it the multifunction switch or something elsewhere.... Fred? (Or anyone else with knowledge)...

probably the board on the wiper motor. You can take it off and check to see if the solder joints are cracked, might be able to reflow the solder.

I have replaced the board a couple times on the wife's wagon as the wipers would turn on and then not stop until the ignition was turned off.

I am currently out of stock of the wiper modules. Changing it is the easiest fix, second to that is to reflow the solder joints. Make sure the missing sector is in the same position when reassembling. Reflowing the solder joints may or may not work. The only way to find out is to reflow them. You must take the circuit board out to solder them.

Is this on the firewall similar to other era gm trucks and Astro vans? I worked in the service department at a Chevy store during that time and those things were always getting replaced… I haven’t even looked under my hood yet other than to hose the engine down after driving it in the rain…

It is on the passenger's side at the firewall.

my 96 used to do weird stuff like that - first it would do the 'not turn off' without killing the ignition, then it stopped doing that after a few months but then it switched things up and only do lo/hi but not int.

however, i noticed one day, that the intermittent part would actually start working after maybe 15min or so of driving in the rain and then they'd decide to work. cracked solder joints/circuit boards can behave in a most annoying way.

Ah, the joys of owning and using an older car

The gods of gremlins are smiling on me today.
I had to make a 170 mile run last Thursday and ran into some rain. The wipers have not shut off without turning the key off since i got the car. It had never rained so I didn't delve into it.
I had to pull off I95 to shut the car down to shut them off after the rain stopped.
Pulled the module and found that the rotating cam was not positioned correctly, the pin wasn't in the groove where it should have been. EZPZ fix to try if it's happening to you.

Bucky53 wrote:

The gods of gremlins are smiling on me today.
I had to make a 170 mile run last Thursday and ran into some rain. The wipers have not shut off without  turning the key off since i got the car. It had never rained so I didn't delve into it.
I had to pull off I95 to shut the car down to shut them off after the rain stopped.
Pulled the module and found that the rotating cam was not positioned correctly, the pin wasn't in the groove where it should have been. EZPZ fix to try if it's happening to you.

I warned of that 5 posts before yours.

Actually Fred you didn't. Your post was making sure that it was put back where it was and something about a missing sector. If I put mine back where it was it would still be wrong. I put it in the groove where it was supposed to be but wasn't. It's all good, I appreciate all your input on here.

91 OCC went through a torrential rainstorm and puddles yesterday. Wipers worked but when shut off wipers (with ignition on) they kept moving about one inch above the resting position. Killing the ignition returned them properly. This morning it's dry and they're fine. After reading your post and the responses, I know where to focus my diagnosis.

Walterf wrote:

91 OCC went through a torrential rainstorm and puddles yesterday.  Wipers worked but when shut off wipers (with ignition on) they kept moving about one inch above the resting position.  Killing the ignition returned them properly.  This morning it's dry and they're fine.  After reading your post and the responses, I know where to focus my diagnosis.

just replace mine with the cover from a JY car. works great again. Will need to source another for next time....

1991BlueBertha wrote:

Got stuck in a rain storm last night for the first time since getting the Wagon.  My wipers work fine on low and high but nothing in the intermittent part. As a matter of fact, they wont even come on till you twist it all the way past the intermittent lines then will come on... BUT when you go to turn them off, they will stop in the middle of the windshield until you twist it all the way back to off , past all of the intermittent positions, and then they will come back on to the park position at the bottom of the windshield.  

Something similar happened to my 1996 FWB yesterday. I got caught in rain for over an hour. The wipers had always worked perfectly, ever since I bought the car 8 months and 5.5k miles ago. Yesterday, however, about an hour/70 miles into this storm, the intermittent wipers (the setting that I was using at the time) started getting stuck about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way around. They would eventually release and complete the cycle, but since they kept getting tuck at the exact same point (no matter what intermittent speed I was using, the spot as the same), I had to switch to the continuous setting (both low and high speeds still work properly).

My guess is the electronic board. Any pointers as to where I can find the correct one?

Fredrick J. Kiehl

silverfox103 wrote:

Fredrick J. Kiehl

Fred, do you happen to have one in stock that would be right for my 1996 FWB? I know you were "out of stock" a few months ago, has the situation changed? Would you have the part number that would be needed to search for one if you don't have any?

ayilar wrote:

silverfox103 wrote:

Fredrick J. Kiehl

Fred, do you happen to have one in stock that would be right for my 1996 FWB? I know you were "out of stock" a few months ago, has the situation changed? Would you have the part number that would be needed to search for one if you don't have any?

B and D bodies are all the same, and there are other cars that had the same module. I have a couple $35 plus shipping. Message me.

@Fred Kiehl: thank you for shipping me one of your windshield wiper boards. I received it quickly but then work got in the way of installation. Finally, installed it yesterday with the help of a good friend (former GM mechanic): all is now back to good working order!

Just a warning for folks doing this replacement: in my case, a moving part had become detached and a spring had fallen off. Luckily, the spring was not lost and all went well -- but it took some time to figure out where everything went (YouTube videos were mostly about a different type of board setup, but luckily a repair manual came to the rescue).