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Lost in the 60's

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
OK, I have been over the wiper wiring and fuse and have never gotten the wipers to work until today. I pushed the knob to see if the washer pump would run and the WIPERS WORK WITH THE PUMP....LOW AND HIGH SPEED !! What the heck ??

The other issue is the glowing alt light. I put 2 different alts in it today and they all do the same thing, not that I can promise any of them are good, but the engine keeps running after removing the pos cable with all 3.

Then I was setting the idle, so I applied the park brake to hold the car against the trans and the ALT LIGHT GOT BRIGHTER WITH THE BRAKE APPLIED. The brake light comes on too, but is very dim.

Are all these issues related and if so is it a bad ground on the instrument panel and/or wiper switch ??

Thought I would throw this out for help before a tear into the dash....:yes:
 
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#2 ·
It your sure sounds like a ground wire issue to me. Try grounding the wiper motor with a jumper wire to a good ground.
 
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#3 ·
i ran into this problem when i changed from a 2 wire starter to a hi torque 1 wire,it was back feeding through the starter from the second wire that goes on the run post of a 2 wire starter (s & r)that i didnt need any longer,check your starter wires and see what happens if you switch them around or just disconnect the run wire,mine was doing the same exzact thing with the alt. light,and not shutting off.hope it helps
Bryan
 
#4 ·
Your wiper motor problem almost has to be the switch, if the motor turns when you hit the washer button.

Not sure on the gen light thing.

The brake light has one side hot thru the gauges fuse and main power into the cluster. It lights when the other side of the bulb is grounded by the ebrake switch.

The gen light gets power from the main feed also, and lights when the signal from the regulator is low on the other side of the bulb.

The main feed from the gauges fuse is the common things, but...

That feed also powers the fuel gauge, the temp light, and the oil pressure light. Are any of those screwy?
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
JimM said:
Your wiper motor problem almost has to be the switch, if the motor turns when you hit the washer button.

Not sure on the gen light thing.

The brake light has one side hot thru the gauges fuse and main power into the cluster. It lights when the other side of the bulb is grounded by the ebrake switch.

The gen light gets power from the main feed also, and lights when the signal from the regulator is low on the other side of the bulb.

The main feed from the gauges fuse is the common things, but...

That feed also powers the fuel gauge, the temp light, and the oil pressure light. Are any of those screwy?
Click to expand...
I'll try to keep this in order:
The ground at the brake light switch has surface rust and may not be making a good ground, hence the dim brake light.

In looking things over, I found the main feed wire to the fuse block at the horn relay was only attached to the terminal by 3-4 strands of wire....the rest were broken off. I cut the wire back and attached a new terminal, cleaned the surface rust off and reattached the wire. Now the alt light glows brightly, BUT...my fuel gauge had always read over full but did respond to fuel level. Now it dropped to 1/4 tank, which is probably right.

I don't remember if my temp light has ever come on and the oil pressure sender wire isn't connected to anything....no sender in block and I don't know if either even have a bulb in them.......never looked....

In doing further research about the alt light I see that all 67s had the 62 amp alt and I have a 68-up 61 amp alt on here. Would that be anything to look at ?? The book calls for a different regulator for the 2 alts. If I still have a regulator for a 62 amp alt would that be a problem with the light/charging rate ??

Thanks for the info....it helps :thumbsup:
 
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#6 ·
Yes, use the other regulator ffor the 61 amp alt. P/N XXXX515 is for 37 & 55 amp alt's. Ignition switch supplies one side for GEN light, regulator supplies the other side, no alt turning, light on; alt converting energy, 12 volts, light off.

Push wiper switch knob in to turn on washers, and knob rotates to low speed. Manually turn wiper knob to high speed, and you should be able to push in wiper knob to turn on washer pump. At least you have the ground strap on the wiper motor isolator as the wiper does work.
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
Everett#2390 said:
Yes, use the other regulator ffor the 61 amp alt. P/N XXXX515 is for 37 & 55 amp alt's. Ignition switch supplies one side for GEN light, regulator supplies the other side, no alt turning, light on; alt converting energy, 12 volts, light off.

Push wiper switch knob in to turn on washers, and knob rotates to low speed. Manually turn wiper knob to high speed, and you should be able to push in wiper knob to turn on washer pump. At least you have the ground strap on the wiper motor isolator as the wiper does work.
Click to expand...
I'll have to see which regulator is on the car. It may be that it was switched too, but I have no idea.

When I turn the knob to low or high, the wipers do nothing. When I push the knob in while on off or low the pump runs and so do the wipers. When I turn the knob to high and push it in BOTH the pump and wipers run faster. :yes:
 
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#8 ·
MD88IROC said:
When I turn the knob to low or high, the wipers do nothing.
Click to expand...
Not good.
When I push the knob in while on off or low the pump runs and so do the wipers.
Click to expand...
Good.
When I turn the knob to high and push it in BOTH the pump and wipers run faster. :yes:
Click to expand...
Not good, only the wipers should run on high, not the washers also.

Wiper motor connector pass to drvr:
Blue, Dark blue, yellow(jumpered to far right pin), Light blue, yellow.

Wiper switch connector: front of car to rear: Blue, Light blue, Dark blue.

I believe the switch completes each circuit by placing a ground onto the wire(s) rather than provide power.
 
Discussion starter · #10 ·
mikeyparts said:
had the same problem with wipers on a corvette plug
was reversed on switch
mike
Click to expand...
I will check that when I pull the speedo panel out..........:thumbsup:
Everything else seems to check out, but I can't get my hand that far up to check for the ground washer either, so I will pull the panel forward to access it. As for the wires, I see from pas to driver: Black, Lt Blue and the Yellow that jumpers down to the washer pump and a Dk Blue with it there. With the key on they ALL have power to them at the same time....:confused:

I don't find any indentification on the voltage regulator and believe it's a replacement of unknown application. I'm leaning towards getting a new one for the 68-up 61 amp alt and go from there.

Thanks guys......
 
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#11 ·
your voltages on the wiper motor are correct when it is off.

When on, either the light blue or the dark blue will go to zero volts.

On the gen light thing, have you tried running thru the voltage checks in the troubleshooting article in the electrical basics sticky?
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
JimM said:
your voltages on the wiper motor are correct when it is off.

When on, either the light blue or the dark blue will go to zero volts.
Click to expand...
I will have my son work the switch while I check that.

JimM said:
On the gen light thing, have you tried running thru the voltage checks in the troubleshooting article in the electrical basics sticky?
Click to expand...
No....I was silly enough to think this was going to be simple......:noway:
 
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Discussion starter · #13 ·
OK JIm, I will run the voltage checks as you describe, but I'm still puzzled why the alt light gets brighter when I apply the park brake and the brake light is dim. I did clean the park brake switch contacts today and nothing changed.
At the time I did that, I had the feeling the body wasn't grounding back to the battery and found a loose ground strap and cleaned and tightened it, but it didn't help either. Could I still be dealing with a bad gound from the dash/body ??
 
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Discussion starter · #14 ·
I ran the voltage checks from your sticky and all but 1 matched. When the engine is running, the voltage on the White wire does NOT go up with rpm. It starts at 7.3 at idle and only rises to 7.4 with any rpm increase.

The blue wire on the wiper motor does go to near 0 when the switch is pressed and the wipers run.
 
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#15 ·
MD88IROC said:
Everything else seems to check out, but I can't get my hand that far up to check for the ground washer either, so I will pull the panel forward to access it. As for the wires, I see from pas to driver: Black, Lt Blue and the Yellow that jumpers down to the washer pump and a Dk Blue with it there. With the key on they ALL have power to them at the same time....:confused:
Click to expand...
Your wire does not match the colors I gave, same as for a 68 & 67. In the diagram, there is a blue wire just to the left of wiper motor. This blue wire might be for the oil sending unit. Since motor does run, the ground washer behind the switch is okay.
I don't find any indentification on the voltage regulator and believe it's a replacement of unknown application. I'm leaning towards getting a new one for the 68-up 61 amp alt and go from there. Thanks guys......
Click to expand...
XXXX515 is for all amps of alt except for 63 amp, it takes an XXXX519.

I would probably get a Wells P/N VR715 electronic reg, direct replacement for mech. Just change the cap to look OE. Don't forget to transfer the ground strap..
 
#16 ·
MD88IROC said:
I ran the voltage checks from your sticky and all but 1 matched. When the engine is running, the voltage on the White wire does NOT go up with rpm. It starts at 7.3 at idle and only rises to 7.4 with any rpm increase..
Click to expand...
Either your alternator or your regulator is bad, most likely the alternator, tho I second Everett's suggestion to go with the Wells reg.

That voltage reading is why your gen light is on.

What are you seeing at the brown (#4) wire on the reg, it should be bad too?
 
Discussion starter · #17 ·
The reading on the brown wire was 12.4 not running and 11.84-12.4 running. I had 3 different alts on it Sunday and they all had the same light issue. I can put the one back on that it came with tomorrow evening and do another voltage check, but I'm leaning towards the regulator since the light was on with all 3 alts.

I see the VR715 is available at my local Auto Zone for $15. Maybe I should just take 2 of the alts with to Auto Zone and have them bench tested. If they are good I will get the regulator.
 
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Discussion starter · #19 ·
The Blue wire would put out the 11-13.2 volts running at around 1500 rpm. I never measured voltage right at the battery. I was thinking this afternoon that maybe the ignition switch wasn't suppling the 12 volts on the other side of the bulb to turn it off ?? I did replace the switch as the original had terminals that were loose and the plug was a little buggered. Maybe the wire from the switch to the bulb isn't making contact on the back of the switch.:confused: Could the circuit board have a break in it too that would prevent the power from getting to the bulb ??
 
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#20 ·
If the bulb is lit, then it is getting power.

Normally, it will have battery voltage from the ignition switch (13.5-15 v running) on one side, and the voltage read at the brown wire pin 4 on the reg on the other side.

The lamp will start to glow when the difference in these voltages is around 4 volts, and will glow very bright when it is 12 volts.

Have you cleaned the terminals on the regulator?
I used to have a problem with that terminal, I'd lose all charging and the gen light would glow, every once in a while. I'd wiggle that wire and it would go back right again. Eventually I replaced that terminal and it's solid now.

You can release those terminals and pull them out pretty easy. If you look at the side that plugs into the reg, there is a lil slot... sharpen up a paper clip and slide it in there, and it will push the retainer back and you can pull the wire out. Clean the heck out of it, rebend the retainer\, put it all back, and try again.

For sure lets check the battery voltage with the engine running... GEN light on and not charging is a completely different thing than charging fine but gen light on anyway.
 
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Lost in the 60's
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