The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Dead in the water !!!

So, I'm at one of the most congested intersections (1st Ave S/ Marginal Way at the First South Bridge for you Seattleites) at rush hour (5:20 pm) when it starts to rain for the first time in a month. I'm the first vehicle at a red light. Behind me is a Kenworh with two trailers. Everytime the light goes green, about 5 cars get through. Nerves are frazzled. I turn on the wipers and the truck goes dead. Stone cold. Guages all go off. The light is about to go green when I get out and start pushing. I'm in the left lane so I push into the traffic coming off the bridge hoping that they will just back off. I push in front of the two right lanes of traffic and up into a driveway at Seattle Fish. I have just enough energy to get the tail end out of the roadway when the light changes. My heart was pounding like a steam hammer and my legs were shaking. I got out the cell phone and dialled a "9" and a "1". I hovered my thumb over the keypad waiting to hit that last "1" in case it's THE BIG ONE!
Things settled down, I guess all that walking and bicycling paid off. I called AAA instead of 911, and got towed home by a big Chevy Duramax.

Where do I start my troubleshooting?

with the vehicle you were driving!! if it was the ol bolt, sounds like electrical to me - like the battery or connections - maybe poor ground - sudden current draw finished off a weak connection - maybe even wiper motor shorted out - good luck!!

Bill

Get the beans out of your chili and then maybe I can help... Oh, and I got a call today from a buddy looking for a sys admin to work on Bainbridge. Interested in an opportunity to get out of that Seattle traffic?

Three possibilities that I think of immediately:

1) Coincidence unrelated to wipers...
2) Electrical fault in the wiper circuit that killed the electrical system.
3) The wiper mechanism shorted the ignition circuit.

Is this your '59? Is the wiring stock?

No smoke, sparks or melted plastic?

Now that it's had a chance to dry off, does it start and run OK?

I think it might have somthing to do with the battery or it is not charging. Charge the battery and see if it will start.

I'm guessin either voltage regulator or alternator--prolly the later. When you turned on the wipers overwelmed the system and down she went. Insufficient voltage.

were you in an automatic transmission?

Thanks for all the tips.
Stock wiring as far as I can tell. There's a couple of pieces of zip cord in there that I'm not too sure of. It's not the stock ignition switch either.
The wipers moved about ten degrees and then the whole thing stopped.

Well the first rule of trouble-shooting is to divide the entire system into pieces and check the sub systems until you find the one where the failure is occuring.

The truck and wipers both died at the same time. Are the wipers electric? If so its probably an electrical problem. If the wipers are vacuum I would not assume an electrical problem.

Is the battery charged?
If the battery is okay, turn on the ignition and check for power to the coil. If you have power to the coil check out the ignition system because most likely the running problem isn't related to the wipers, but rather to ignition.

If no power at the coil, check the ignition post on the ignition switch. If you have power there the problem is between the switch and the coil. If you don't have power at the switch its the switch itself (check to see if you have power on the batt post on the switch) or between the switch and the battery.

Given the apparent connection between switching on the wipers and everything dying I'd look particularly for wiper control arm and wiring that are touching. If you reported smoke or sparks I'd guess the wiper control arms cut into one of the wires to the amp meter.

But since you didn't say smoke it may be something else...

Divide and conquer! Keep checking until the problem is localized to one part of the circuit, and then replace or repair that part.

OldSub and everyone else. I crawled in upside down beneath the dash with a MagLite in my teeth and found a cut brown wire dangling from the vacinity of the wipermotor. Unknown if it's a stock brown wire or a replacement brown wire, I'll get to it next weekend. I guess I'll have to remove the seat in order to work under there for any length of time.
Hope it's sunny and warm.

OldSub and everyone else. I crawled in upside down beneath the dash with a MagLite in my teeth and found a cut brown wire dangling from the vacinity of the wipermotor. Unknown if it's a stock brown wire or a replacement brown wire, I'll get to it next weekend. I guess I'll have to remove the seat in order to work under there for any length of time.
Hope it's sunny and warm.

Hmmm how'd I do that?
Hmmm how'd I do that?

I hate hanging wires.

I take a drastic approach to loose wires. I hack them all out.

A couple weeks ago I went wild and removed every wire I could find from a buddy's truck. Another few weeks and we'll put all new wire in it. It should be a lot happier then!

i HAD THE SAME PROBLEM WITH MY 53 CHEVY , IT TURNED OUTY THE POINTS WERE DIRTY. TRY THAT ROOT.

If your ignition is fuzed and the wipers are wired through the ignition switch, the fuze could have blown. The starter would still turn over if this is the case unless you have a starter relay running through the same fuze. A brown wire is normally hot all the time and it may have burned rather that been cut. Perhaps it supplies the power to the ignition switch? The first thing to check would be the connections on the battery.

Baldy