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Wiper wiring and the Painless wiring harness (again probably)

coots

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May 5, 2015
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I've spent the last several months installing the painless wiring harness part 10114 and it's been pretty smooth. WRT the wipers thought, the instructions don't match my setup. I have the Synchronized Electric Windshield Wiper Kit Item #: 5298 from WH but I couldn't stand the plastic rectangular switch. It seemed glitchy at best. So I ordered COMPLETE WIPER SWITCH KIT Item #: 6320 for a 73-77 and the switch control marries up to the painless switch correctly. The painless switch is advertised as a 7 pin switch. This is what the manual says:

Wiper switch connections, for those with electric wipers, are made using the 7 wires tagged “WIPER SWICTH”. These wires are as followed:
o Orange/White- Switched Power Input for the Wiper Motor
o White/Black*- Switched Power Input for the Washer Motor
o Green*- #983 WASHER MOTOR B+
o Blue- #977 WIPER MOTOR HIGH
o White- #979 WIPER MOTOR LOW
o Black- #981 WIPER MOTOR PARK
o Red- #982 WIPER MOTOR LOW (WASH)

The Washer motor wiring is perfect. I have 4 wires going to the wiper motors - ground, then park, low, and high. I have the wipers temporarily connected and they work. So that's a win, but the instruction manual's description is throwing me for a loop. Everything is great up to the Black wire. On my harness the black wire is a dead wire. It has no current no matter what the wipers are doing. Additionally the Red wire is always hot. By process of elimination and trial and error I realized that the red wire is actually the park wire. And with the addition of several 5A diodes on each of the wires going to the motor (other than the grounds), I've also avoided the self-park feedback loop. So the question is - WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH THE BLACK WIRE? I've had it connected to the low speed wire and it didn't have any negative effect. I've also had it disconnected and it didn't have any effect. If I hook it to the park circuit, the wipers run on their own. The wiring schematic that @Jdgephar made actually leaves that connector blank. I wonder if the control switch I have is different enough from the painless switch that the function is totally different or maybe painless has another error in their instructions. I've found a couple others as well. Anyway, that's the question.
 
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coots

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According to the rep from painless, the black wire is a ground...makes sense I guess.
 

Jdgephar

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You're using a stock Bronco wiper switch with a non-stock dual motor wiper system. There are only 3 wires to connect to the stock wiper switch...12v park, low, and high.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk
 
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coots

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You're using a stock Bronco wiper switch with a non-stock dual motor wiper system. There are only 3 wires to connect to the stock wiper switch...12v park, low, and high.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk
The way you say it makes it sound so simple, I guess I made a mountain from a molehill.
 

DirtDonk

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And if they don't want to work correctly after that, your windshield frame might not be well grounded to the rest of the body.
Since the wiper motors ground through their cases, the frame has to be well bonded to the rest of the vehicle.

I think you said you had all your grounds dialed in, but make sure that's the case with the two body grounds. The one from the battery to the fender and the one from the back of the engine to the firewall. Ford did not put one of those on Broncos, but they should have!
I've literally had to run a small jumper wire from the body to the windshield frame to get wipers to work properly. But they worked great after that!

Paul
 

bronco italiano

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So on a stock wiper switch and motor setup, the #982 wire WIPER MOTOR LOW (WASH) is not used then?
 

DirtDonk

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What year? Early switches might not include the pump function. Instead that was a separate button.
Later ones (I forget what year they started) used a push action to activate the fluid pump. So yes, I would think it should be attached to the stock switch if it’s a late model.
 

bronco italiano

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1972
Has the integrated washer pump in the switch
It looks as if that wire connects to the black wire from the original wiper motor.
Jim put a Centech harness on this truck about 20 years ago and the centech black wire from the motor through the windshield frame says "ground" and that may be messing me up.
 

bronco italiano

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Just spoke to painless and the gentleman said the 982 wire hooks up to the black wire from the motor.
After looking at the schematic provided by Viperwolf1, in another post, it looks as the BK-W wire (Ford 28) is the wire 982 should go to.
1709912729197.png
 

DirtDonk

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Before you do that, don’t. :)
Any black wire from a motor that says ground, is very likely exactly that. It’s just a ground and you do not want to hook positive power from a switch to it.
Something is not gonna like it!

Ground the ground, or at least follow it up to make sure it’s still a ground, and then screw it to metal.
Then hook the black wire from the switch to the PUMP motor. Not the wiper motor.
Maybe that’s what the guy meant?
Why are you following Painless instructions when you have a Centech harness?
 

DirtDonk

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Are you replacing a Centech harness with the Painless harness?
 

bronco italiano

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Replacing the centech harness with painless.
Centech wired all the way to the wiper motor, while painless only goes to the lower windshield 4-wire plug.
The confusion is the blk wire is in the molded wiper motor pigtail plug that goes through the windshield frame.
I wonder if I should call centech and see what they say. Centech is closed on Fridays
I recalled Painless and they guy said the 982 wire wiper motor low (wash) is connected to the wiper motor black wire.
Electrical is my weakness, and trying to read the diagram (I am pretty clueless/uneducated).
Anyone can confirm the Wiper motor low (Wash) does connect to the black wire at the wiper motor?
Only item holding me back from getting the "Mad-dash" installed
 
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DirtDonk

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I would look at the factory Diagrams posted here first.
If it’s a factory motor, originally it would have grounded to the frame through the mounting bolts. I don’t think it had a separate ground for the motor, but it could’ve had a separate black wire for park or something like that.
Then again, replacement motors often came with the wrong color wires and mismarked. If they were marked at all.
In fact, it’s a little surprising that there’s a marked ground wire at all.
Wouldn’t hurt to call Centech then, especially while they’re open.
Better hurry!
 

bronco italiano

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The motor is Ford.
Centech marked the wire as gound, but it is in the 4 wire plug to the motor.
 

DirtDonk

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Then, don’t worry as much about what the wire says, as what the Ford diagram says the wire does on a Ford motor.
 

bronco italiano

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The marked centech wire is really throwing me off for sure.
I'm gonna double check tonight when I go work on it.
Thanks
 

gnpenning

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Loc.
I have more questions than answers.
If that wire is a ground wire in the centech harness you should be able to use a ohm meter from the battery neg to the end of the wire and get a reading. You can also test it at other known good grounds. Plus you can test the wires back to the switch.

Use your meter and test.
 
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DirtDonk

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Another check. How many wires going up the windshield frame to the wiper? It’s possible that they added an additional ground, which is very important for anything up in the windshield frame area.
But, if it’s connected to the four wires of the motor, I’m pretty sure it’s not a simple ground.
 

bronco italiano

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Another check. How many wires going up the windshield frame to the wiper? It’s possible that they added an additional ground, which is very important for anything up in the windshield frame area.
But, if it’s connected to the four wires of the motor, I’m pretty sure it’s not a simple ground.
4 wires for the wiper motor
1 wire for the interior light power (I have the old illuminated Ford rear view mirror that is grounded to the windshield frame.
 

bronco italiano

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took a look at the wiper pigtail plug and great call DD.
The Wiper pigtail, at the wipe motor, had the white and black wire tied together.
The centech ground was windshield frame ground.
So do I tie the white & black connected wire to the painless #982 wiper motor low (wash) or the painless #979 wiper motor low or tie both 979 & 982 to the wire?
Thanks again for having me double check.
 
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