Electrical troubleshooting wipers on 86 Ramcharger

Might be helpful if you included pertinent details on the truck you're talking about...

Yes, you're right ;)

R(k)

Is the power fuse to the wipers still good? Could be control power is from a different source. wag

Fuse is good. Power is def being sent through the switch to the intermittent controller, so I think the switch is ok too. The intermittent is clicking when powered, so it MAY be good but I don't have the test procedures to verify.

R(k)

I see you have yet provided the answer yourself.

Flames aside, anyone have ideas?

Geta friend and a meter, have the friend hit the switch, see if there is anything going on between the controler and the motor with the meter.

break out your test light and connected it to ground then probe the "hot" wire going to the motor. unplug it if you need to. with the light connected between the power and ground when you cycle your wiper switch you should see your test light "light up" should blink as the intermittent wiper controller does its thing and should burn steady on low/high.

consult your wiring diagram if in doubt what wires are the "hot" and "ground"....best i can do for you as i dont have a wiring diagram or a 86 ram charger to look at.

Update:

I pulled the motor off the truck last night. I test for voltage at the harness with the switch on, and I got a reading. On this wiper motor is a little module with 5 spade slots that plug into the motor just above where the harness connects. I took that off, and plugged the motor back in and the motor works if I manually ground one of the spades.

On the motor body, there are 4 spades for the harness, lined up like this: | | | | and checking continuity against a 5th spade the module plugs into, the outer two have continuity with the 5th one, and the inner two with each other only. Since the module snaps onto all 5, I imagine it is acting kind of like a bus and distributing power to the other connections. Testing continuity on this module fails, none of the slots have continuity with each other which I would expect if that's what it is doing.

I think this may be a noise suppression module, inside are what look like cylindrical capacitors, the only marking I can make out on one is

Anyway, heading to the wrecking yard in a bit as the module is not available without a new motor. And I'm too cheap for that, especially since the motor works ;)

Update 2:

Not going to the wrecking yard. After my last post, I thought about what was actually happening. I went back out and plugged that module in then ran a jumper from the motor mount plate to ground. The motor does exactly what it should at all switch positions.

Take the jumper off, the motor stops. Looks like I have a bad ground somewhere.

Will post back with conclusion.