Blowing a fuse when switching the wipers off

[Rubce]

Hi All

Our GT6 has an irritating habit of blowing a fuse (30A) when I switch off the wipers. It did it whilst I was driving home in the dark on Wednesday night which was irritating given that that fuse also controls the indicators and brake lights!

Yesterday as I was getting ready to come home from the Workshop it was raining a bit so I popped on the wipers and then switched them off again. Pop goes the fuse! Four fuses later and I gave up and disconnected the wiper motor so I could drive home with indicators and brake lights.

Any suggestions as to what may be causing it? The motor is the same design as that fitted to a Stag.

Regards

Bruce

[new to this]

You said the wiper motor is the same as the stag, try the wiper motor in the stag to prove its faulty

Dave

[wilf]

Must be the self parking circuit. More than that I can't help!

[Ian F]

Brude,

Check the wiring of the self-park switch underneath the motor? Could have a short in the wiring, hence fuse only blowing when they park?

Ian F

[HersnotHis]

Brude,

Check the wiring of the self-park switch underneath the motor? Could have a short in the wiring, hence fuse only blowing when they park?

Ian F

Sorry not sure this is possible? I recently had problems with my motor not parking and AFAICS using a test meter the parkswitch line is always live and when the wiper is switched off continues to provide drive to the motor until the parkswitch cuts it off. There maybe a short in the switch itself however. The problem in my case was that the park switch pin had jammed in the open position.

Whatever if the plug is removed the voltages on the pins can be checked in the various operational modes and any short should make itself evident.

BTW I may be wrong but I thought the Lucas 16W was unique to the Stag and the Reliant Scimitar SE5a. I suspect the GT6 uses a 14W which whilst similar uses a different park switch.

I found the diagram in about the 6th post down on this forum website to be very informative. http://www.scimitarweb.co.uk/sgwrs/v...hp?t=19479&f=2

HTH

H

PS Bruce - afterthought - do the wipers park before the fuse blows?

[Rubce]

Hi Guys

Thanks for all your suggestions. They have certainly given me food for thought With regards to the wipers they do not park themselves. I have become quite adept at switching off at the right time for them to come to rest in the correct position. Fixing that issue is on my list but never seems to get near the top

That is a great website link.

Regards

Bruce

[Rubce]

Hi Guys

I finally got time to look at wipers on the GT6 yesterday. The wipers seem to have packed up completely now. I ended up removing the motor and looking at the parking switch. The electrical contacts were shot on that so will fit a new one.

My question is "how do I test the function of the motor now that it is off the car?" It no longer has the park switch fitted so only has three wires, yellow, red and blue. I tried connecting directly to the battery with an earth connected to the motor casing I then fed 12v into the each wire in turn. Nothing happened. Do I need to apply 12v to two of the three wires at the same time? It is a two speed motor.

I am puzzled

Regards

Bruce

[milothedog]

The brush's that oppose each other need a Pos and a Neg, (corresponding wires) the 3rd brush is the second speed.

[Rubce]

The brush's that oppose each other need a Pos and a Neg, (corresponding wires) the 3rd brush is the second speed.

Hi

Thanks for that. What was confusing me is that all three wires were coloured. I expected the negative to be black, not the blue that it turned out to be. The good news is that the motor tests fine in both speed modes. So I will need to keep looking for the source of the problem.

Regards

Bruce

[StagJonno]

Column switch shorting to earth?

Jonno

[Rubce]

Column switch shorting to earth?

Jonno

Hi Jonno

It's a dash mounted rotary switch on the GT6. I had a similar thought about it shorting to earth and replaced it but it made no difference. The park switch was very coroded and I have bought a replacement. I will fit that next and see what happens plus re-check the logic of the wiring harness to make sure I didn't get something wrong when I made it as part of the resto

Regards

Bruce

[Rubce]

Hi All

Last weekend I finally got time to bottom out the GT6 wiper problems.

Problem 1 : blowing the fuse when switching off
This ended up being a problem with my home made harness. Basically when switching off the wipers I ended up with both positive feeds clashing hence the fuse blowing. Harness adjusted and the issue is resolved

Problem 2 : wipers not self parking. This ended up being a combination of problems. The corroded parking switch and this was replaced. The second factor was a flanged bush fitted to the wrong side of the main gear. This meant that the gear ride up and over the switch plunger instead if depressing it. The bush error had occured when I last greased the motor.

Problem 3 : the motor was running as single speed instead of duel. This was traced to a corroded terminal in the motor.

The end result is a set of wipers which run in either "normal" or "fast" speed and self park. Awesome result. One observation I have is that the parking switch mechanism in the gt6 style motor is much more robust that that used in the Stag.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

Regards

Bruce

[StagJonno]

Hi All

Last weekend I finally got time to bottom out the GT6 wiper problems.

Problem 1 : blowing the fuse when switching off
This ended up being a problem with my home made harness. Basically when switching off the wipers I ended up with both positive feeds clashing hence the fuse blowing. Harness adjusted and the issue is resolved

Problem 2 : wipers not self parking. This ended up being a combination of problems. The corroded parking switch and this was replaced. The second factor was a flanged bush fitted to the wrong side of the main gear. This meant that the gear ride up and over the switch plunger instead if depressing it. The bush error had occured when I last greased the motor.

Problem 3 : the motor was running as single speed instead of duel. This was traced to a corroded terminal in the motor.

The end result is a set of wipers which run in either "normal" or "fast" speed and self park. Awesome result. One observation I have is that the parking switch mechanism in the gt6 style motor is much more robust that that used in the Stag.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

Regards

Bruce

Thanks for the lowdown, Bruce. You must have had a busy day - worth it now it's well & truly sorted. I had a similar incorrectly fitted flanged bush issue on my Stag - a PO had fitted this incorrectly - the misalignment stripped teeth from the nylon big gear. Fortunately, I also got a spare wiper motor with the car which had a 130deg big gear in it - seems that availability of these are getting a bit like hen's teeth.

Jonno