Wiper Motor Wiring

[PJ]

Can anyone help:

Wipers on my '81 have not 'self-parked' since I've had it, and I was lead to believe that this was an internal fault in the motor. I have now found a loom wire that is not connected, appears never to have been so, and has no obvious mating connector. It is a possibility that I've accidentally pulled it off from somewhere but I'm fairly confident that this is not the case.

Motor, as far as I know, is original: Loom and column switches are not. Column switch is standard mini so wire colours should follow Lucas system.

Motor has 5 wires:

Black, connected externally to motor body is connected to chassis through the loom.
All other wires are connected internally to the motor:
Red wire into motor connects via loom to column switch Red/Green and applies 12v for single-wipe and slow-wipe.
Green wire into motor connects to switch Blue/Green and applies 12v for fast wipe.
Brown wire into motor connects to switch Brown/Green: This appears to 'make' to the Green/Red in the 'off' position and 'break' in all other switch positions.
Yellow wire out of motor connects to a Black/Green loom wire which ends with a 1/4" push-on connector which appears never to have been connected - IS THIS MY PROBLEM??

Having spelled out the problem line by line and read it back, I think I can now see the answer for myself : If the motor is going to run on to find the 'park' position after the switch is returned to the 'off' position, the motor will need its own 12v supply - the mystery Black/Green (Yellow) wire?

Can any experts out there confirm this: with only a couple of hours free time left before the IMM I can't afford to burn out the motor or loom but chances are, that if I have a fully functioning wiper system, we'll have glorious sunshine all the way and I won't need them

[Tim]

I haven't got the correct wiring diagram for a car that late, but the one I have here shows black/green as one of the wiper wires. As you say it has to have 12v (and an earth). Black would normally indicate an earth wire, possibly it homes by connecting an earth (the same way the hoirn works on early cars). Do you see 12V or earth on that wire when the wipers are swithced off partway through their cycle?

Tim

[Doug G]

I just time it when my switching off my wins screen wipers.

Mind you I don't use them out here very much.

Although I have just bought a new pair.

[PJ]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your comments.
It does have earth permanently connected, but will need 12v to park.
As you point out, Black is the earth colour so that spare wire could be earth orientated, but it is also Green which is generally used for fused 12v - very confusing! I'm not really sure if it's Green/Black or Black/Green.

Just got hold of a Haynes manual for the Mini - there are 100's of different wiring diagrams but they all seem to show a 12v supply to both the switch and the motor (Green on earlier models and Light Green/Orange on later ones but that just reflects the change in standard wire colour codes)

Think I'll leave well alone until after IMM, then I'll either strip the motor out to see how it works or risk sticking 12v on that wire and see what happens (depends on how foolhardy/brave/lucky I'm feeling)

I'll let you all know

PJ

[Doug G]

Some of the very old motors do not have the park capability.