I checked the official Ford service procedures for diagnosing the wiper switch and realized I don't have any hope of doing these.

Symptoms are simple. Turn signals work. Wipers wipe. Sometimes, the wiper interval is randomly short, even though the interval setting is very long. It often has a quick interval when moving one setting up or down. Finally, the spray and wash feature rarely works. Sometimes the spray and wipe doesn't happen at all, sometimes the wipers wipe but the spray doesn't, and when the function does anything, I have to wait and wait and wait for the spray to come out of the nozzles. Very weak pattern, and not reliable.

Before I spend $50.44 on a new wiper switch, what do you guys think?

 

The problem is not with the switch as a whole or with the wiring. There are contacts at the end of the lever that control the random wiper control and washer spray. These contacts are probably corroded.

• Pop the cap off the end of the lever
• Remove the screw
• Pull out the guts

There's not too much in there. Just a couple of parts that only fit one way, so you don't have to worry about not being able to put it back together. When you get everything out, spray the parts with brakeleen and rub the patina off with a Q-tip. When you put everything back together, don't tighten the screw too much or you may not be able to press the button. Should work fine after that.

 

Thanks! Sounds very doable.

 

AjRagno's right on. From day-one my '97 F150 washer was intermittent. Initially I noticed it only once in awhile. Summer 2004 at about 80k miles the wiper was failing more than not. What's worse was the blinkers also started to not work intermittently - scary.

I initially tried just taking the end **** of the switch off. There was nothing noticably wrong though.

I then pulled the whole switch off, 3 stearing column collar screws, a couple screws holding the switch housing to the collar, some gentle maneuvering and about three wire connectors later it was off. Another few small screws and the top came off the switch body. This reveled the problem, corroded contacts, they were green in fact. What I liked is that they were heavy duty contacts. I polished them off, put a little silicon greas on and put the lot back together. It's all working perfectly now and what a joy to have working turn signals again as well as washers that work 100%. Don't forget to do all the contacts, as there are both up-down and forward-back sets of contacts. Just wish I'd done it sooner.

 

I am having the same problem with my int.
wiper functions. Had new guts installed last year (arms) and all worked fine. Then, the int. wiper functions started to slowly go. Last week, went totally. I just figured I live with it and use full time wipe. At least I can see. Anyway, was using my wipers the other day and thought I turned them off, but it was actually in the int position. I pushed the clutch in to shift and they started to work. Testing, as long as the clutch is down, the int wiper function works. Any ideas on what would cause this? Wouldn't even think the wipers would be even remotely attached to the clutch switch.


Bob

 

BTT