Adding intermittent wipers
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Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 39
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From: Midlothian, IL
Car: 1984 T/A,
Engine: 5.0 H/O
Transmission: Auto 4spd
Adding intermittent wipers
Pretty much every gm car I have had included intermittent wipers. My 84TA doesnt have them. Any idea on how hard it would be to install them? Im guessin i will have to replace the steering column. Would the wiring already be under the hood to just plug in?
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Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 4,384
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From: Tulsa, OK
It would be quite tricky, but not impossible.
The main reason is the bulkhead connector: where the wires go from the passenger compartment through the firewall into the engine bay. The wiring may or may not be present in the passenger area, but more likely it's there but only as the on/off wiring. There's a small bundle of wires in the engine bay that go to the wiper motor assembly. You'd need to have and install all these wires (as well as the motor itself, and the controls for the steering wheel). You'd have three options to install the wiring:
1. Surgically remove the necessary wiring from a donor car and install into your vehicles wiring harness. Removing and installing wires into the bulkhead connecter is very messy and not fun, but definitely doable.
2. Remove the entire forward wiring harness from the donor car and swap out with your vehicle. You'd have to make sure the years were very close and the donor has all the options your car has. This way you only unplug and plug connectors, but you have to remove a lot of harness and probably a lot of parts to get to all that wiring.
3. Remove the wiper wiring from the donor car, and install into your vehicle, but outside of the wiring harness, and bypassing the bulkhead connector. Instead, just routing the wires through a hole drilled into the firewall and plugged directly into the steering column and fusebox.
As you can see, all three of those routes entail a LOT of work; not exactly plug-and-play.
I did some splicing and dicing and added power mirrors, power antenna, and fog lights to a car that didn't have them, all using the factory routing and connectors (though not necessarily the factory design: I don't like the factory fog-light wiring scheme). Very labor intensive.
Also, older wiper motors have the washer pump sort of built into it (plugged into the side), whereas newer setups have the washer pump built into the washer fluid reservoir. Depending on the equipment you're working with, you'd need to take those components and their associated wiring into account as well.
So to recap, you need:
- Steering column
- Wiper motor assembly
- All associated wiring and connectors
- Possibly the washer components and their wiring
- Lots and lots of free time
The main reason is the bulkhead connector: where the wires go from the passenger compartment through the firewall into the engine bay. The wiring may or may not be present in the passenger area, but more likely it's there but only as the on/off wiring. There's a small bundle of wires in the engine bay that go to the wiper motor assembly. You'd need to have and install all these wires (as well as the motor itself, and the controls for the steering wheel). You'd have three options to install the wiring:
1. Surgically remove the necessary wiring from a donor car and install into your vehicles wiring harness. Removing and installing wires into the bulkhead connecter is very messy and not fun, but definitely doable.
2. Remove the entire forward wiring harness from the donor car and swap out with your vehicle. You'd have to make sure the years were very close and the donor has all the options your car has. This way you only unplug and plug connectors, but you have to remove a lot of harness and probably a lot of parts to get to all that wiring.
3. Remove the wiper wiring from the donor car, and install into your vehicle, but outside of the wiring harness, and bypassing the bulkhead connector. Instead, just routing the wires through a hole drilled into the firewall and plugged directly into the steering column and fusebox.
As you can see, all three of those routes entail a LOT of work; not exactly plug-and-play.
I did some splicing and dicing and added power mirrors, power antenna, and fog lights to a car that didn't have them, all using the factory routing and connectors (though not necessarily the factory design: I don't like the factory fog-light wiring scheme). Very labor intensive.
Also, older wiper motors have the washer pump sort of built into it (plugged into the side), whereas newer setups have the washer pump built into the washer fluid reservoir. Depending on the equipment you're working with, you'd need to take those components and their associated wiring into account as well.
So to recap, you need:
- Steering column
- Wiper motor assembly
- All associated wiring and connectors
- Possibly the washer components and their wiring
- Lots and lots of free time
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