Headlight and wiper problems help!

[djdelee421]

Hello everyone I'm new here and the worst problem I'm having on my 83 sx4 is both my wipers and my headlights it's been a project car but I'm getting close and this is what's holding me back. So only my high beams were working I put a new switch in and still only the high beams someone told me adding relays would fix it but is there anything simpler that it could be? My wiper switch was bad it did nothing so I took it apart cleaned everything made everything tight and clamped it back in. Now it will make clicking noises in the switch and all it did for the wipers was push them down where they don't belong and now they are stuck there. Whoever had the car for some reason cut up the plug that goes to the motor from the loom so could that be it? Let me know everyone I'm really wanting to get her on the road. Any help is greatly appreciated thanks a lot!!

[amcfool1]

hi, and welcome to the world of Eagles, best  cars ever made!   Sorry, can't help you at this long distance with switch problems, but, new switches are available. Try APD, or Blasers,  I have had to replace a couple of those in my time. Before you spend money, educate yourself, get a TSM (Technical Service Manual) for your car, Usually available on ebay, you may have nothing worse than a a bad wire connection somewhere. Take a deep breath, focus, and start tracing wires from source to end. Sometimes the problem is nothing worse than a bad ground wire/connection. good luck, gz

[AMC of Houston]

Re the headlights; don't overlook the easy and obvious.   Could be both low beam bulbs are toast.   I've run into that a number of times over the years.   Pull a bulb and see if you're getting power to the low beam connector, or just plug in a new sealed beam.

[djdelee421]

I'll try that today hopefully I'll get around to it thanks for the input. Would you kno anything about my wiper situation?

[AMC of Houston]

Well, re the wipers all I can say is what AMCFool said; get the wiring diagram and start from scratch.   Who knows what the previous owner may have done.   Maybe the connecter was hacked to put on a non-original "rebuilt" wiper motor.

But first take off the wiper arms at the pivots; sounds like maybe they were put on in the parked position when the motor wasn't actually in the parked position.

[djdelee421]

Well I got the plug off another car so I was going to maybe try re wiring that on there but it's definitely an Amc motor so I'll test the motor and go from there thanks again for all the help

[djdelee421]

So on my headlights are all four supposed to be lit on high and low? Or do the two inner ones turn off when you switch to low?

[AMC of Houston]

All 4 should be on when on high beam.  Only the 2 outer ones should be on when on low beam.

[djdelee421]

I figured that out on one of the other cars. But my wipers I replaced the plug that I think mice got to. And the wipers work but I can't get them to stay down whenever I turn the switch to off position they go back to all the way up. So now what do I do?

[djdelee421]

So I looked at my lights and I had no power to any plug when switched to low beam. So I started tracing wires and I found something that was messed with by someone. There's a lime green wire on my passenger side that runs across to the driver and into the loom. Well someone had clipped the green wire behind the lights on the passenger side and then they taped it back together and had a jumper wire connected to nothing. I was really confused there so I tested for power where they cut it. Still had nothing so I started tracing the lime green wire and found that up by my brake booster and master cylinder there was the lime green wire sticking out of the loom with a plug on the end of it. no other wires just the green one with a plug on it going to nothing so I tested for power there and still nothing. So my question it what is that lime green wire and why do I have nothing? I really need some advice on this and I really want it done right I don't know why people have to do this stuff to electrical instead of getting it right the first time. 

[rmick]

You might look at these schematics to see if any of them will help.

[amcfool1]

hi, check in the Epedia, some wiring schematics there.

[AMC of Houston]

Re the wipers; I wonder if some simp bolted the arm on the back of the motor 180-degrees off.   Easy to do when swapping a wiper motor if one doesn't remember how it was taken off.   

With the switch in the off position and motor parked (ignoring where the windshield arms are), the arm on the motor should be pointing to the drivers side.   If its pointed to the passenger side, its 180 off.   Then have to take off the motor, unbolt the arm and flip it around the other way.

[djdelee421]

I was figuring it had something to do with the back of the motor so I'll do that next. So thanks and on my headlights I found that my low beam wire was just clipped off under my dash for some reason but I ran power to it to test and sure enough my low beams work so I'm excited I'm figuring all this out thanks everyone for the advice I really appreciate this forum!

[AMC of Houston]

Geez; why on earth would someone just cut a headlight wire??!!    Some folks shouldn't be allowed near tools or wiring!