C3500 Wiper stall issue

teambldr · February 20, 2005

HI,

I have a 93 C3500 7.4 4 door dually.

The issue has come up now and again where the wipers would pause then go again and even sometimes pause and when I gave a little tug on the wiper blade arm it would start back up again.

Last night, in pouring rain, the wipers decided to stall and not come on again. Of course I was 45 miles from home and it was about 10 at night so finding somewhere to get parts was almost a lost cause.

What I noticed last night was that when I turned on the wipers I would see a draw on the charging system that happened each time that I switched it on then off. After an hour of trying things I saw that the draw was not happening any longer. I checked the fuse and it was still fine.

Today I did some research and found that there was a common problem with the pulse relay board so I found one and replaced it. No luck, it didn't fix the problem.

I went back in the autoparts and bought the whole wiper motor assembly next. That is what I am about to replace now.

Any other thoughts as per what this could be?

Thanks in advance.

71GMC_3/4T · February 21, 2005

I had a '92 K1500 Z-71 that had the same problem. Usually, if I tapped it when the switch was on, it would run fine until the next time it rained, or I needed the wipers.

I finally got tired of it and searched the 'net for a fix. Turns out, you only need to pull the circuit board off the back of the motor. You can pull it without removing the motor. Pull the plastic cover off the motor. Disconnect the plug. Gently pull the board toward the front of the truck (there's 4 or 5 contacts that go into another plug inside the motor. Once you get it off there, look closely around the wide contacts where they're soldered to the board. Mine had little hairline cracks around most of the contacts. I reflowed the solder and never had another problem afterward. If you can't solder, take it to an electronics repair place and they should be able to resolder it and clean it for a few bucks or a six-pack if you point out the bad solder joints.

Your problem may not be this, but it's a good place to start, especially since your truck is only one year newer than my old one.

Shaners · February 21, 2005

Yes 71GMC has the correct fix... There have been alot of issues with the circuit board for the wiper motor for your truck.

teambldr · February 21, 2005

I had a '92 K1500 Z-71 that had the same problem. Usually, if I tapped it when the switch was on, it would run fine until the next time it rained, or I needed the wipers.
I finally got tired of it and searched the 'net for a fix. Turns out, you only need to pull the circuit board off the back of the motor. You can pull it without removing the motor. Pull the plastic cover off the motor. Disconnect the plug. Gently pull the board toward the front of the truck (there's 4 or 5 contacts that go into another plug inside the motor. Once you get it off there, look closely around the wide contacts where they're soldered to the board. Mine had little hairline cracks around most of the contacts. I reflowed the solder and never had another problem afterward. If you can't solder, take it to an electronics repair place and they should be able to resolder it and clean it for a few bucks or a six-pack if you point out the bad solder joints.

Your problem may not be this, but it's a good place to start, especially since your truck is only one year newer than my old one.

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Thanks for the info.

I tried replacing the pulse board with a new one and that didn't work so I went ahead and bought a new motor. Took the old one out, put the new one in....works fine with the exception of me having to reset the park point on the arms. Other than that it works great.

Thanks