Electrical Short/wipers?

[ColinP]

Hi,

Your suggestions for fixing this one please!

Saturday I drove for about 1 1/2 hours through the appaling rain (here in the SE). I had everything going - headlights, wipers, heater fan, and radio - I had to listen for THE RESULT!

Just as I stopped in a side road, the wipers stopped working (on the full non-park position). I opened the bonnet (engine off, all switches off), and replaced the 35Amp fuse. When I turned the ignition back on, there was a noticable dimming of the oil/ignition lights, no movement from the wipers, and anothe blown fuse. Repeated with the same results...

After coming back from the shopping (about 1 hour), I replaced the fuse again, the wipers parked, and eveything came back (except the radio).

I then drove home (M25/M4) for about 1 1/3 hours - everything going (except the radio) without any further problems.

Is it possible for the wiper motor to have an intermittand short/ overheating that would cause it to short? That fuse has (IIRC) the indicators, heater fan and brake lights running through it - (Radio's connected to the other fuse).

There was/is some water reacing the boot via the rear lighting cables, but the bullet connectors are shrouded and anyway the lights were off when I had the problem second time.

It's a 1964/5 1098cc 2 door with an alternator - the only non-standard fitting is the radio.

Any suggestion taken seriously,

Colin

[Willie]

Yes, it is perfectly possible that your wiper circuit could
have an intermittent short which could well be heat related.
To check the wiper circuit in isolation you could try the
following: The GREEN wire to the wiper motor is live when-
ever the ignition is on. The motor is only turned on if the
Black/green wire is connected to earth. If you could remove
the green wire and fit one of those plastic tubular fuse holders
between the green wire and its original terminal on the motor
then, if it is faulty, that fuse will blow when the fault occurs.
Obviously, if the original fuse blows then the fault is elsewhere.
I would suggest a five amp fuse for this test. (The value MUST
be lower than the value of the standard Minor fuse).