'95 Taurus: Front wipers stuck UP when turned OFF

Jim Pank opined in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

"Governor"?!!!! Does he speak english... or does he specialize in the '40's era?

Yep... there's lots of good working motors in the junkyards.

If the wipers work fine, then the motor is fine.

Question: by "up position", exactly what do ya mean.. if you turn them off in mid-cycle, do they just stop where they are? Or do they return to where their lowest point in the cycle?

If it's option 1: I have no clue, But, if it's #2..There is likely a switch somewhere that changes the wipers from "Normal" to "Winter" mode.. My Ford Probe had this, and would cause the exact thing, to help prevent the wipers from being iced over while retracted.. they just wouldnt retract. Look under the dashboard first.. The switch on the Probe looked like a large fuse that was movable, you unplugged one thing, and plugged it somewhere else.. Look for this..

Chuck

Motor. Plain and simple, there is nothing else, just replace the motor.

Perhaps so, but my Mazda MX-6 (which was the same vehicle basically as the Probe, 1 year later model) did NOT have such a thing, as the wipers always stayed parked, and never retracted.. in fact, the only vehicles I've seen where the wipers completely retract were all American auto makers.. and usually a "comfort" line like Taurus, Crown Vics and competitive vehicles from Chevy..

Chuck

I never understood this, myself. My old Volvos I had - the wipers didn't do the "hide at the bottom" routine. 20 years later, the motors still worked.

Having read all the other helpful replies, I remembered that my Ford wipers had an all-off "DOWN" position that secured the wipers, such as if you were going into a car wash. They also had an "UP" position during the "intermittent" or delayed action wipe - and of course they would stay in that position if you turned off the power. (If you went through the car wash with the wipers in that position, they would be torn off!) I think this is what you are talking about.

If it is, and if you've been pushing the wipers 'down' from the 'up' position, they may have slipped so that they now think the 'up' is what you see as 'down'.

Of course that implies that the control or the switch was faulty in the first place. - RM

Only if you turned the car off, if you turned off the wipers, they would park. But at the same token, if you were to turn the car off while the wipers were in operation the blades would just stop. So moral of the story, turn off the wipers, then turn off the car.

My 94 Taurus wagon is doing the same thing. If I'm incredibly fast on the draw I can get the wipers to end up nearly at the bottom. Normal shut off means they are way up on the windshielf, and yet they work fine. My mechanic suggests a $105 motor.

How tough is it to pull a wiper motor from a junkyard?

Don't have the answer to your question. However, not being a wealthy person there have been many occasions in my life that I have gone to great lengths to save a few bucks. All too many times I have expended $500 worth of effort to save $50. I'm sure many in this newsgroup can relate.