Hello. I have a 1983 Z28 Camaro with a new 350 in it. Upon receiving the car the wipers were functioning but a few drives after the wipers failed. I have since replaced the motor because the technician I took it it for it's checkup claimed it was the motor.

Upon changing out motor (everything bolted up the same) However I noticed this refurbed pump has a circuit board yet my old one did not.

When I manipulate all the switches for the blades I get clicks but no motor movement. And when I took apart the motor I made sure to make sure the wiper arms had full movement before mounting the new one. I have tightened all the bolts and have a good ground I know. I'm wondering if there's something else I'm missing at this point? The old motor was bad and corroded electrical connections.

I removed the fuse to test again and no clicks when fuse removed and then clicks when fuse was reinserted so I know Fuse is good. I really hope I didn't get a bum new Wiper motor.

 

How do you know this?

The factory used a little brass strip that electrically bypassed one of the rubber mounting grommets. Without that, the motor is not grounded AT ALL It relies on the rubber to maintain its connection. As anyone with any experience in dealing with connections knows, relying on a blob of spooge to keep a connection tight is an absolute foolproof recipe for failure. It'll fail every time.

How is your motor grounded?

 

Because to make sure I took a Booster cable and mounted it to the metal Frame of the car to verify ground. Also the old motor was functioning with the same type of grommets from before it just was old.

 

OK, doesn't make any sense at all, so, ... who knows.

Once you disturb an inherently poorly designed setup like the factory used, which was good enough to get through the warranty period but not reliable after that, all bets are off as to whether it's still "good" or "working", or not. No telling whether it survived.

Best way to ground the motor is, run a small wire about the size of its power wires (18 or maybe 16 gauge or so) from one of the screws on the motor body itself - the round thing that looks like an electric motor, NOT the aluminum frame kind of thing up toward the top - to one of the screws on the firewall, with correctly sized ring terminals securely crimped on it.

No guarantees of course; but that's where I would recommend starting.

 

I did exactly that using a booster cable.

It did not work. I have checked Fuse. The only thing it could be is the refurbed motor I have is bad or there's some other electrical connection that is fouled up somewhere that may have come loose. At this point I'm not bothering with it anymore and will need to find an alternative motor and return this one.

I really don't like your tone in PMs and Messages unfortunately.

 

Sure, it could be a bad new one. Those certainly have no guarantees of perfection either.

I don't really care whether you like the "tone" of truth or not unfortunately. I don't have to tell you the truth, or what to do to make your car right, or help you at all unfortunately.

Good luck.

 

Is the circuit board on a black cover? Try swapping the covers. Could also be the park switch.

 

There is no circuit board on the original motor.

Where would I find the park switch?

 

You said the new motor has a circuit board an the old did not. Try swapping the cover the board is on. Park switch is usually mounted the the wiper motor housing. Pics?

 

Swapping out the black plastic cover that is on top will not do anything. It has no sensitive components on it.



Old motor. Electrical connections burned off.

New motor

 

Looks like its not removeable anyway. You've got the older variety as well. At the very least you should get the type w/ no circuit board.

 

 

Your opinion is noted. There's a bit of PM history you aren't aware of that rubbed me the wrong way with this individual and they told me wrong information which would have let to thousands more money spent on my car.

 

Luckily it's as simple as returning the motor since I bought it from Oreilly's to get my money back. I'm going to be taking her in for a body shop quote next week anyway and see if it's possible to make this motor work as is as they obviously are wired the same way. I'll probably rip it out myself and buy a small work battery to test motor operation on my own.

For now the car runs...I just want the windshield wipers working for obvious reasons.

 

Hi Gunz, I'm sorry things didn't go well with the PMs, I had no idea about them and was just posting that as a bit of attempted humor. Personally, I prefer to discuss everything in open forum VS PMs, for the reason that we're all fallible humans, we all make mistakes at times, and the more eyes looking at something the more possibilities of arriving at the correct solution. Remember, the last perfect human to walk the earth ended up nailed to a cross, leaving me not so sure I would like to be perfect

And for my about your problem, I agree that if your original motor had no circuit board in it, your new one shouldn't either. I'm left wondering if perhaps your car doesn't have delay wipers, and the new motor does, and your non delay switch won't run the delay motor ?

 

Also, never forget, no matter how bad things may seem , , , , ,

Someone else, somewhere else, is having a far worse day ..........

 

Yep. My thoughts as well. Saying something 'fits' an 83 Camaro is way different than saying it works. Cause it fits I put it in lol. And it's a simple install. I just need it to work. I'm just worried I won't pass inspection next year for safety without working wipers. I'm glad they worked the first time.

The good thing is at least I know it's getting power because of all those clicks and fuse testing. The shop that worked on my Camaro were extremely lazy when they removed the engine and did not do any engine bay cleaning. I'm glad the car runs and they did it but I ended up spending 4 more grand than intended due to their mistakes. So I'm trying to just do things on my own for now. Live and learn.

They don't make these motors anymore but seems Cardone and pretty good about helping when you call then I'm told so I'm going to attempt to call them and see if they can get me a motor that is best fit.

If someone has a source on an original working Third Gen 83 motor. I'm thinking the motor I have is an 84 style maybe and maybe it's not wired correctly for that. I'd rather not rewire if I don't have to. I know it worked before...and I won't take this refurbed motor apart as that's not a good idea.

 

And no harm no foul. I just don't like Sofa because of how he acted in PMs and the higher and mightier attitude they've stated here when I stated I already verified the ground was good.

You can be old and still be an *******.

 

Looks like you might just have the wrong motor.

83 is a problem year; seems to me (as the owner of a 83) that there's more than one.

Might want to take your old one with you and match it up at the counter.

And you can still be young and be an entitled but inexperienced a****** that's advice-proof.

 

I think 83 was a change over yr. That type of motor looks a lot like the type 2nd gens used, maybe also some b-bodies too, 84 is different. Then again in 88 there was a similar change.

 

Yep that's what I'm noticing myself.

GM being GM and reinventing the wheel every 30 seconds. I had to remove the Carb computer and got back to a 70s style vacuum setup to get the car to run. Runs like a champ now.

Screw carb computers.

 

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