Attention Electrical Gurus, Need help with windshield washer wiring Options

[bbrock]

Right after ordering a complete Car Magic kit to convert my windshield washer to electric, I read Sir Andy's excellent tech article on the conversion. The idea of pulling power for the washer pump off the intermittent wiper feed so the washer is activated by pulling back on the wiper lever was too elegant not to try.

I happened to have this nifty vintage VW style splitter I bought some time ago for not other reason than I thought it might come in handy for some future custom wiring project. It was just the ticket for splitting off of my intermittent washer relay to power the washer pump.



After hooking everything up, I pulled back on the wiper lever and HUZZAH! The washers squirted and the wipers ran for two sweeps and parked. Pretty slick! I couldn't understand how the intermittent wipers would work when the lever was pulled down to turn the intermittent wipers on. I pull down on the lever to test them and nothing. As soon as I unplug the washer pump, the intermittent wipers start running. I'm not sure how the intermittent relay works, but thinking the timer is from charging a capacitor which then "bump starts" the wipers to run a single cycle.

Is there is a reasonably simple way to isolate the pump so it allows the intermittent mechanism to run without activating the washer pump? Could be a fun project. Or should I just go back to the original plan of installing the Car Magic switch? I just like the idea of minimizing the wiring.

[lesorubcheek]

I know the feeling. You just can't let this go without solving it. From the diagram, you can see a connection from a contact on the pull circuit (right 2 contacts) to the input of S1, so you can visualize that just pulling back on the lever will energize the intermittent action, just as 53c should be energized when pulling back on the stalk.


The part I can't visualize from the diagram is what's going on at S1 when the stalk is down or in the J position. It doesn't look like it's connecting to anything if you rock the angle up or clockwise one tick in the diagram. It looks like 53e will connect with 53, just as in the off position, which makes sense as that would connect the output from the intermittent relay to the low speed wiper. I'd expect 53a which is the 12V input to the switch to be connected with S1 when the switch is in the J position..... maybe it is, it just doesn't look clear in the diagram.
Dan