I have a 67 camaro. Picked it up not to long ago. I replaced the wiring harness w/ a painless harness. When I went to see if the wipers work I first realized the wiper transmission was froze up & I think the po didnt know this so he kept trying to use it & broke all but one of the three bolts off that hold the motor to the firewall. Fixed these probs (new wiper transmission and got the old bolts out of the firewall and now have new. Turned the wipers on and got nothing. Ordered a new wiper motor, put it in and now the wipers will only work while the washer is pushed in. Figured this was the switch so I got a new switch and it does the same thing. I now have the original switch back in cuz the new "OER" switch, more like "POS", broke while I was pushing the knob on it (pushed all the guts out the back!). I searched and saw every one refering to this being a ground problem so I took the switch out and grounded the switch housing (wrapped a wire around the housing and then to a ground) and still got the same thing. Before I put the switch back in I filed the inside of the switch hole in the dash so it could make a decent contact if it does ground through the housing but still same thing. Sooooo, in summary, new motor, good switch, new wiring, still poop wipers. Maybe somethings back asswards in the new harness but I doubt it cuz if I flip either of the plugs that go to the motor or the pump it just blows the fuse so pretty sure the wires are right?? The other thing I've noticed is that if I unplug the washer pump and try to use the wipers it will just blow the fuse. I have no idea how to check the wiper system as I dont know how they get their power. Any help is incredibly appreciated, thanx VERY much. (Hope I can still get through this w/ out smashing something!!)

Here is a test diagram but not sure if 67 is the same. I have no idea why it would blow fuse with washer connector off but run with it on.
http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=42420

Jeff

So, if I'm reading this correctly, all the wiper switch does is completes the ground to make the wipers work (low= lt blue ground, & high= black ground) And the one hot wire (yellow) is just a keyed wire? So I should just try a jumper wire from the motor housing to the switch housing and see if this fixes it? Wierd thing is that I know the switch was grounded. I wont be able to play w/ this as Im 4 states away from the car now but I will on monday. I'll just pull the switch and wire it myself and see what I get. If it's the painless harness thats bad I'll be furious cuz this will be the second prob w/ their harness that I've had to fix and not having to deal w/ this crap is the ONLY reason I got it. Thank you for that too btw, that will def let me solve this prob!!

You got it! you 'ew on your way to get it fixed. I hope it's not a harness problem but if it is pleasse post the cure here.

Jeff

Matt.....please post how you solve this as I'm having the same problem on my '67. I don't recall hooking up any special grounds but then a friend helped me run the harness a few months ago and he was going at a pretty fast pace. Thanks!

I'll play w/ it again tomorrow. I'm just going to pull the switch back out and wire it myself under the hood and see what I get. I'll def post what I figure out. Thanks again for all the help...

Here's what I've figured out so far (sorry if it sounds confusing, hopefully your head doesnt explode while reading this!!)-
-If it's hooked up normal at the wiper motor (keyed yellow to motor w/ shared keyed yellow to washer pump, light blue to washer pump, dark blue to motor in the same plug as the keyed yellow, then lonely black wire at the motor) the wipers only work on low w/ the washer pushed in and stop when I release the washer button. The high setting doesnt work until I push the washer button in but will continue to work once it's released. The switch doesnt have to be grounded for this to work this way (can just swing in the breaze below the dash) and still works the same if it's grounded. Also the washer pump makes one click when I turn the key on (regardless of the switch position, on or off) then clicks again when I turn it off. :confused:
-If I unplug the washer pump nothing works. (It didnt blow a fuse this time either, I wonder if maybe the plug bumped the motor housing last time:p and thats what blew the fuse)
-If I unplug the washer pump, then take the light blue wire that normaly goes to the washer pump and hook it to the wiper motor instead of the dark blue wire, I HAVE to ground the switch and everything works the way it's supposed to. (Leaving the dark blue wire unhooked completly, and everything except the washer pump works as this is unhooked completely)
At this point I could just give up and hook it up this way but I kinda want the washer pump to work and dont want to half a$$ it. I'm wondering if maybe my washer pump is bad and this somehow completes a circuit somwhere and it's not doing what it should be??? Any suggestions? Thanks again...

OK now I am mad that I went the Painless route on my 67, as I am having this same problem. Will try to work through the post by Kevin. Hope to see something more here.

I also am having problems getting my gauges working properly, but I added the console gauges so figure that I need to check ground. Which I haven't yet was happy to have the car start up.

Thanks

Do '67 wiper motors ground to the firewall through one of the mounting grommets like '69s?

Thanks Joe! I was hesitant from joining in because I do not know the wiring of 67s or how Pain(ful)less does their harnesses.

Does anyone here have a diagram showing which wires connect to which posts on the wiper pump housing. I pulled my original wires without a pic or making a diagram. because there is an upper and a lower connection point, left and right side. I wanted to make sure we are putting the yellow on the correct contact, I don't see a diagram showing which post on the unit is which. I was trying to reverse the wires and that blows my fuse of course. :confused:

OK I am a noob but here is how I have my Painless wires set up:

black is solo topside pass side, then Dk blue/Yellow is topside with yellow on drivers side connection. The lower terminal it Lt Blue/Yellow in that config too.

I here the motor getting power but doesn't turn until you push in for washer fluid.

Painless is sending me some help via email, I'll post it later.

and I am working on my 67 here, original motor, new pump and new switch(this system worked fine before I pulled the harness)

I'll bet I have 16 hours into this stuuuuuuuuuupid wiper set up so far :sad:! I picked up a washer pump today and got another new switch. I'm going for broke!!! (Now EVERYTHING wiper related is new!) I'll install the pump and see what I get. To answere your question about the wiring mine is the same way. I WILL (God willing, forgoing any physical disasters) figure this out!

I think HwystarJoe may be on to something. The bolts that hold the motor to the frame may act as a ground. Try cleaning out the threads and retighten and see if it works.

Matt, dont know if 67s are the same, but here are pics of 69s. One of the grommets has a brass strip wedged in-between the case and contacts the metal top of the grommet which connects to the firewall via the mounting screw. This needs to be there for the parking curcuit to work. Wipers get 12v all the time and use a switched ground to operate.

You can see the brass connector in this pic assembled
http://www.fototime.com/F73CD1974D3213A/standard.jpg

And loose in this pic in the bottom box
http://www.fototime.com/65DEEB34EB5783E/standard.jpg

I do know about that ground. I replaced all the bolts w/ new cuz when I got it 2 were broke off. I've played w/ the wiring enough to know that from drivers to passenger side the terminals are--
1. Drivers side- switched power, hot when key is on
2. Center terminal- grounding this terminal will make wipers run on high
3. Passenger terminal- grounding this while wipers are running on high will cause wipers to quit running, if I connect this w/ center terminal to a ground, wipers will run on low.
I think this is what the switch accomplishes. What I've figured out is that it's not my wiper motor or my washer motor. I think it's my switch but I'll find out. Thanx again for the input, still working at it :(...

[Drum roll please] I'VE FIXED IT! I'VE FIXED IT! I'VE FIXED IT!!!!! :hurray:

I had alot of problems! My washer pump was bad first of all, there was a short somewhere in it and that's why it was blowing the fuse so I replaced this (that solved the fuse blowing problem).
Then I had the problem of random switch problems, sometimes it would do one thing wrong, the next time it would do another thing wrong. I know that the switch HAS to have a good ground to work properly and I was sure it did; the problem was that if I positively had the switch housing grounded and I wiggled the switch it was arking inside (something wasnt making a good connection). So I took the switch housing apart (working w/ my original switch now as ALL of the aftermarket switches are GARBAGE) and noticed that inside the switch there are 2 points that are "supposed" to contact the housing but over time things get a bit loose and they werent always contacting the housing, therefore even if the housing was grounded perfectly it didnt matter cuz it couldnt get to the inside of the switch. SOLUTION FOR THIS PROBLEM- If you look at the back of your wiper switch you'll notice there are 3 leads coming out, 2 on one side and one on another; you'll also notice a copper piece that has 2 tiny tabs bent over that seemingly has no function. THIS IS THE POINT THAT GROUNDS INSIDE THE SWITCH. I soldered a wire to this that I grounded under the dash- now my switch will ALWAYS be grounded regardless of how its mounted or even wether it's mounted :yes:!
Now I turned my wipers on but still only would work w/ washer pushed in but at least it was now concistent as I solved the other problems. (Also bear in mind that I installed a "painless" wiring harness while you read this!) Baffled at my situation, all I could do was figure out how the wiper motor worked independant of the switch so I could make sure that it isnt a problem in my new wiper motor. (This is all in my previous post but I will reiderate.)
If you look at the wiper motor from the front of the car you'll see 3 leads. The far right lead is the power or "hot wire"- it always has power w/ the key on. I hooked this one right to the battery w/ no other wires hooked up and wipers remained still. I then took a wire and grounded the center lead and the wipers sprang to life on high. I then grounded the far left lead and the wipers returned to their resting position at the bottom of the windshield and quit. I then jumped the center and far left lead together while they were grounded and the wipers sprang to life on low. THIS IS FUNCTIONING PROPERLY IF THIS IS HOW YOUR WIPERS WORK, USE THIS TEST PROCEDURE TO CHECK YOUR MOTOR, I did and therefore my wiper motor was functioning properly.
Next step was to test the washer pump. The guy at "painless" said that the left lead on the washer pump is the hot wire and the right lead is the ground. I dont know if this is true cuz it doesnt matter w/ my new washer pump how I hook them up, it works either way. I hooked the hot wire to the left, then grounded the right wire and it "clicked". I believe this "click is a valve opening- when you push the wiper switch in it opens this valve and alows the fluid to pump through. This "click tells me that my pump is working properly.
This only leaves one more problem if I'm sure my wiper switch is fine, my motor is fine, and my washer pump is fine and that's BAD WIRING!! On the "painless" harness the wires that go the the wiper motor are in a black plug. The 2 wires in this black plug are yellow and dark blue. There is a 3rd wire that goes to the wiper motor and this is black. The wires that go to the washer pump are in a brown plug and they are yellow and light blue. I switched the light blue wire w/ the dark blue wire (now the dark blue goes to the pump and the light blue goes to the wiper motor. I turned my switch to low and voila, wipers came to life on low! One more click up w/ the switch and voila, wipers went to high! Turned them back to low, pushed the switch in and "click", washer pump began to work!!
In summary, that was a problem that was caused by the "painless" harness that I bought to avoid these kinds of problems. This was the second problem I had w/ their "painless" harness. The first was if turned on my left turn signal, my left lights would blink but my right signal indicator in the instrument cluster would flash! This was also 2 wires I had to switch in the harness going to the cluster. Therefore, "painless", you need to work on your quality!! I think you should pay me $95/ hour for my time (20 hours) and if your going to sell a product make sure it's not a great big piece of $h!t!!! I am however happy w/ my new fuse panel, but come on. For the $ these cost I would think I wouldnt have to engineer them myself, isnt that the point of buying a new one??
I almost forgot, THANK YOU for all your help, I wouldnt have figured this out w/out it!!!

Glad you got past the "Painless" process!

I had been thinking this was an issue with the Painless Harness as it seemed many post with similar problem. Is it possible to put the connector on the switch two ways? if so does that reverse the dark and light blue wires?

Jeff

Two different plugs.... black one and a brown one.

So let's see..... $95.00\hr for 20 hours.... $1900.00!! Add in pain and suffering and you've got yourself a cool $3000!!!
:thumbsup:

It would be nice if I could collect that but I dont even think I'll call them. This is a classic case of parts being assembled w/ efficiency & profit coming first and quality second, kinda the way everything is anymore. Also, you cant switch the washer plug w/ the wiper plug, the washer plug is bigger. The leads inside the plug are the same and I tried to remove the leads from the plugs and switch them that way to avoid butt connectors but I couldnt get the leads out of the plug w/out recking them so I gave up on that idea. I'm still glad I got the harness because my old one was pretty bad but for as much as they get talked up on TV they really need to get it right. Maybe I need to start some "painless" competition as I dont think anyone else makes an aftermarket harness!
Hahahaha- I just the add at the top for the American Autowire harness! Maybe this would be better than going the painless route ;) !

Next time you need any wiring harnesses........buy American AutoWire!!!! I completely rewired my '69 with their harnesses. Quality product!!!!!!!!

David F.

Congrats and thanks for posting! I will try and fix mine this weekend. I have the original harness and mine has the same symptoms as mentioned earlier. Go grab yourself a cold one....you deserve it!

Is it possible to put the connector on the switch two ways?

if so does that reverse the dark and light blue wires?

Jeff
Two answers refering to the motor connections, I meantioned this as I thought I saw someone else say they had flipped the connector at the switch.

It's too late for one of you but you can remove those connectors from the plastic connector with a very tiny screwdriver to release the tab that secures them.

Matt I fixed my Painless Wire problem, switch the 2 blue wires and that fixed my whole problem. the top connections are for the motor and the bottom 2 are just the pump. Painless must have them backwards on our kits, a friend came over and tested all my wires and found the issue to be the 2 blues were backwards. We swapped them around to each other's terminal and everything works now.

Hope it works for you:hurray:

I had been thinking this was an issue with the Painless Harness as it seemed many post with similar problem. Is it possible to put the connector on the switch two ways? if so does that reverse the dark and light blue wires?

Jeff

Two answers refering to the motor connections, I meantioned this as I thought I saw someone else say they had flipped the connector at the switch.



Jeff, It happened to me. I installed a new motor,wiring & switch.... and only had low speed...move the switch to high speed position.....wipers would park & not operate. I obtained a set of wiring diagrams and discovered that I had the connection at the switch inverted("flipped"). After making the proper connection, they wipers work just fine....so yes..the connection at the can be "flipped". I know from experience....trust me!!!!

David F.

I also had issues with a Painless harness. In my case the black wire and the light blue wire were reversed at the wiper motor connection. I was able to remove the wires in install them correctly.
This was a good thread. Helped me resolve my problems and confirm what I already found wrong with my new harness.

ok so im having the same problem with my 68 i have no idea what kind of wiring it has on it but i did notice it had a inline fuse type looking thing with nothing in it and i was also wondering on the very simple version on how you guys fixxed your problems haha i have read through and im still a little confused on how you fixxed it