Fat Bob
29-12-2009, 07:22 PM
In between repeats of Only Fools and Horses and being drunk this Xmas I thought I'd get to the bottom of why my rear wiper wasn't working. The inspection I had before buying the car revealed the motor was seized so I bought a salvage replacement at 45 quid. Fitted this but no joy.
I then did what I should have done before buying parts and checked it myself. After removing the trim on the rear hatch I checked the voltage on the motor wiring and found one to have no juice. Further explorations revealed this:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u15/johnno_photo/problem.jpg?t=1262108175
The brown wire is the missing wiper motor feed. White is the boot lock (no idea how that was working) and the other broken connections are for the heated rear screen. I was going to patch up what was there but this seemed like a short-sighted fix as other cables were starting to go as well. Instead I decided to make a new set of patch cables to sit in the gator. All that was needed was some appropriate cable, some heatshrink and a bit of soldering (never use scotchlocks as they often corrode). All in it came to less than a fiver:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u15/johnno_photo/parts.jpg?t=1262108344
Despite the freezing weather outside I managed to get a pretty decent solder joint going and decided to length the cable to get both joint sections inside the panels. Hopefully this way the car body side slack would pull through when the tailgate was opened:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u15/johnno_photo/halfway.jpg?t=1262109337
It would have been better to stagger the joints to get them into the gator easier but the damage dictated where to make the cuts:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u15/johnno_photo/almost.jpg?t=1262109615
Unfortunately I couldn't get the tailgate side connections into the panel without damaging them as there was next to no room so the gator pulls away from the car a little when opened and closed. I'm hoping some silicon spray will help keep it moving. Failing that I might just remove the gator and maybe use some grommets to close the hole around the cables to stop water getting in.
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u15/johnno_photo/complete.jpg?t=1262110116
After connecting back up and replacing a blown 15 amp fuse for the wiper system (number 44) everything worked!
Whether you've got any problems with the rear wiper/heated screen, etc. or not it's worth just pulling the gator back and checking it out. If it hasn't gone yet then it could well be showing signs of wear.
I then did what I should have done before buying parts and checked it myself. After removing the trim on the rear hatch I checked the voltage on the motor wiring and found one to have no juice. Further explorations revealed this:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u15/johnno_photo/problem.jpg?t=1262108175
The brown wire is the missing wiper motor feed. White is the boot lock (no idea how that was working) and the other broken connections are for the heated rear screen. I was going to patch up what was there but this seemed like a short-sighted fix as other cables were starting to go as well. Instead I decided to make a new set of patch cables to sit in the gator. All that was needed was some appropriate cable, some heatshrink and a bit of soldering (never use scotchlocks as they often corrode). All in it came to less than a fiver:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u15/johnno_photo/parts.jpg?t=1262108344
Despite the freezing weather outside I managed to get a pretty decent solder joint going and decided to length the cable to get both joint sections inside the panels. Hopefully this way the car body side slack would pull through when the tailgate was opened:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u15/johnno_photo/halfway.jpg?t=1262109337
It would have been better to stagger the joints to get them into the gator easier but the damage dictated where to make the cuts:
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u15/johnno_photo/almost.jpg?t=1262109615
Unfortunately I couldn't get the tailgate side connections into the panel without damaging them as there was next to no room so the gator pulls away from the car a little when opened and closed. I'm hoping some silicon spray will help keep it moving. Failing that I might just remove the gator and maybe use some grommets to close the hole around the cables to stop water getting in.
http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u15/johnno_photo/complete.jpg?t=1262110116
After connecting back up and replacing a blown 15 amp fuse for the wiper system (number 44) everything worked!
Whether you've got any problems with the rear wiper/heated screen, etc. or not it's worth just pulling the gator back and checking it out. If it hasn't gone yet then it could well be showing signs of wear.