What was supposed to be a quick and easy job wiring up the windshield wipers turned into an all afternoon chore. (This is the way most of my jobs go, it seems.)
I had breakfast with my buddy Joe, then went to the hardware store to pick up some zip-ties, a couple of hose clamps, some stainless screws, and some other odds and ends, then went back to the shop. I fired up the wood stove, then Joe stopped by the shop to visit some more and check out the progress on the truck. He was impressed with the truck, which was good, and we ended up talking for quite a while, just setting lawn chairs in front of the stove. It was nice.
After he left, I got busy and pulled wires for the wiper motors, and connected everything the new switch I’d bought. These are two electric, self-parking wipers I’d bought at the Nats North last fall. I thought it’d be good to run them from one switch on the dash, rather than a switch for each motor. This was great in theory…
When I turned them on, they worked great, seemed to stay in time, but when I shut them off, they kept right on running. This went on for well over a minute, when they finally shut off. What the…?
Did it again, same thing, only now they were a little un-synchronized, and ran even longer when I shut them off. I unhooked the passenger side, ran them separately, and they both worked as they should, shutting off when with the switch. ????
I finally figured that with them wired together to one switch, the were just enough out of phase, that the internal switch which stops the wiper in the “Park” position couldn’t work. So, I simply wired them to two separate toggle switches I had. These will poke down through the header panel which conceals the wiper motors, where the original wiper switches were. It’s OK, and it’ll give that antique-y “out of time” rhythm wipers on split windshield cars are supposed to have. Right?
Continuing the “nothing is easy” theme, I then wired up the heater to its dashboard switch. It worked once, then, when I shut off the switch and started it again, nothing.
After trying to jump it with no success, I ended up taking the heater out, pulling the motor, and found that the brushes were stuck in their little tracks inside the motor. A quick clean up with a file, a drop of oil on the bushings, and I had it back together and working fine. And it only took an hour and half.
With that and the wipers now working, I devoted the remainder of the afternoon to tidying up the wiring from the fuse block, pulled wires for the radio/CD changer, and tucked the fuse panel back up under the dash and zip-tied it into place. I’d spent all day earlier in the week getting the brake lights working, and had ended up with the fuse panel laying on the floor in a tangle of wires, so it was good to get everything tucked back into place, and at least start getting things wrapped up.
Next project is to make a little box to hold the radio, which will mount the radio pointing straight up between the driver and passenger, right behind the shift lever. I’d originally thought I’d put the radio head in the header panel (over the windshield) glove box, but, it didn’t fit, and if had, it would have taken up all the room in the only storage cubby in the cab. Not good.
This will be OK on the seat base, and the CD changer fits behind the seat back, standing upright, with access behind the center console/armrest of the seat back. It holds 10 CD’s, and I’m also going to get a satellite radio adaptor, so we’ll have that as well. We shall have music, wherever we go…
Stay tuned for more progress, as I try to get everything under the dash tucked away and as clean as the firewall!
Cool McCool's Garage 