Mike C.

I did a quick search and didn't find anything. Maybe just my imagination but the wipers seem to move slower than they should on both speeds. The car has 250K miles and I'm sure it is the original wiper motor but I wouldn't expect a DC motor to significantly slow down without making some bad noises. Any ideas?

RC713

Increased resistance (electrical, not friction)? Which ground is that motor tied to? Maybe shine that one up.

Mike C.

I'll definitely give that a look.

Mark944na86

One trick you can use on older cars is to put in a higher threshold voltage regulator on the alternator. The stock ones are set to 14V. I put a 14.5V one in my car, and made everything a bit perkier, from faster electric windows to a brighter dash and clock illumination. Most importantly my battery charging went from "marginal" to "solid". The extra 0.5V compensates to some extent for increased resistance in the aging wiring. Sort of Viagra for an old electrical system... a bit of a cheat, but oh well.

Mike C.

An interesting idea...

elzergone

This is really interesting!

Feel like doing a how-to for those of us less knowledgeable?

CorsePerVita

Don't forget that water sometimes gets in the wiper motors and they don't run as hard once the surface areas get rust on them! It's sometimes as easy as pulling it apart, dremeling fresh surfaces and cleaning out. Don't forget that sometimes the lube inside the gear that drives it may go dry and that is a friction LEECH. I rebuilt mine and regreased it and not only is it VERY quiet but it runs MUCH faster.

Mike C.

Thanks- that does make perfect sense.

Grandpa#3

Check out the link below for a picture of what you wiper motor most likely looks like inside the case. A clean up would make yours work much faster and freashen up the old caked up grease with new White Lithium Grease.

https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...with-pics.html

Cheers,
Larry

Mike C.

This will be a good weekend winter project for sure.

ZR8ED

I agree with cleaning the motor contacts etc, but I have also found just cleaning and lubing the linkages for the pivot points and arms. Simple aftenoon project...as long as you don't get caught in the "while I'm at it" syndrome.

Let us know what you did and how well it worked!

Mike C.

I will. I think I'll baseline it too and do a before & after thing. Maybe how any wipes in one minute or something like that.

alan t

My wipers used to be extremely slow. I had some other electrical issues that were addressed, and somewhere throughout the process, the wipers were fixed. I didn't clean any contacts or do anything with the wiper motor directly. Six blown fuses were replaced, and one relay (for the turn signals), and wiring to the tail lamps were bypassed (they were grounded somewhere, and it was easier just to put in a new wire than to track down the ground). I would check to see if by chance the turn signal relay is also for the wipers.

Tiger03447

Marc 944 I like your idea of upping the alternator voltage...how can this be purchase as an alternator kit, or are the parts available ?? What to buy at Radio Shack? How about a how to on this process..??Thanks, Tiger 03447

Mark944na86

This was a few years back now, so I don't have a part number or source for the part at hand, but the replacement part was a Bosch regulator with the same form factor as standard one on the alternator, but a slightly different spec. I don't actually recall now f I had to remove the alternator to do it, but it was a simple thing to actually replace the regulator on the alternator... the trickier part was identifying the part number of a suitable replacement and sourcing it.

I'll have to look through my parts bin and see if I can find the original regulator, and maybe from there I can figure out (again) what the part number of the replacement might have been.

Another simple thing I did after this modification was to replace the ground strap on the battery. This helped particularly with getting a reliable and solid crank on the starter. The old one looked fine, but obviously over the years had become somewhat degraded. These two mods together have resulted in a much healthier electrical system overall.