Sarum

Still continuing the saga of getting the wipers to work again in my '65 Cutlass! Last night I ended up removing the wiper motor from the car and thought it would be a good idea (Hmmmm?) to connect the motor directly to the car battery to see if I could get any joy from the motor.As soon as I did this the spade terminal link cable someone has installed between the middle and bottom terminal started smoking and melting!
Have I killed the motor? As a bit of background I had recently installed an additional tach and thought there was a good chance I had disturbed some wiring under the dash.I have spent a fair bit of time going over things with my multimeter with (I think) pretty weird results at times. For example when I put my meter across the incoming 12v + connector wire and the motor's 3 terminals I got 9.42V on each.I rhought I may be getting this result as there was a connection all the way from the negative side of the battery through earth on the wiper motor and then through the motor itself.Does that make sense?
This testing was done with the ignition and wiper switch both on.Oddly sometimes I couldn't pick up any voltage using the same test.
Disconnecting the battery and resistance testing at the negative/earth connection at the motor and the 12v+ connector wire I got no circuit neither switched or unswitched which seems to debunk what I had thought about a "circuit" through the motor or maybe that's because the motor's windings were not being energized? Any assistance would be great about now!

m371961

The CSM has great step by step instructions on troubleshooting wiper motor, in the car and out.

Sarum

Thanks for your reply but could you tell me what CSM is?

Lady72nRob71

CSM is the chassis service manual that was written by GM for their techs.

Octania

CSM = Chassis Service Manual
The factory issue one is the best
Heinous, Chitlin's etc. are vague generalities in comparison.

m371961

Available on wildaboutcars.com
Free to join. You can also find them on e-bay used. Someone is selling one on here I believe, and you can get a CD version. Everyone dealing with a old car should have one, even if you don't do your own work. Not many modern shops have mechanics familiar with these cars.

Sarum

Thanks so much for putting me onto the CSM's available at Wildaboutcars.You have made my week but when I should have been fixing my wiper problem I have been busy downloading all of the files that relate to my Cutlass! Awesome treasure trove of information and I'm sure it will be referred to often.
Funny thing is that I already had a log in for the website but didn't know that there was all this stuff there.My previous "access" was limited to me receiving links to original road tests of all of the old muscle cars which are great also.

Sarum

Thanks for your help and as you will see from my post below I have downloaded all of the relevant CSM's from the Wildaboutcars site.

Sarum

Thanks for your reply, got the CSM's from Wildaboutcars website.

Sarum

Thanks for your reply, downloaded the GM factory manuals from the Wildaboutcars website.Awesome!