The wipers gave up on my W123 during a heavy downpour - the plastic cup broke up (previously damaged?) that holds the wiper arm->motor mechanism to the wiper arm mechanism. So I fixed that with parts off my spares car.
After reassembly, on trying the wipers they didn't work. When I turned on the wipers the relay ticked loudly like it was sticking. So I changed the relay, then changed the wiper stalk thinking there was a short somewhere... wipers still not working. I took off the front scuttle panel to check the wiring to the wiper motor thinking I might have disturbed something. All looked fine.
So, with the dash underside and scuttle of the car lying around in bits I thought I'd better check the fuse. It was fine but a 5A not a 10A. Put in the correct fuse and the wipers worked fine - using the original relay and stalk!
My question is - why?? Why did they work before the mechanism fell apart but not after I had fixed it. Extra load?
And why didn't I check the fuse before taking the car apart?