Wipers Won’t Park after Fuse Replacement

[Adharan]

I just got my car (1994 ATX) back from an alternator replacement last week (voltage regulator, they tell me it was measuring 18v before they replaced it) and I’m currently cleaning up all the other little things the failing alt caused.
One of which was a blown 30A fuse for the wiper & washer system. A generic replacement from oreillys and I’m back in business - except the wipers now won’t go back into the recessed park position when they’re off. The system otherwise works perfectly fine, and the wipers don’t feel loose at all. I couldn’t force them down with the system off without risking damage. I’m assuming I need to replace the wiper motor — but if the motor was going bad, wouldn’t the wiper system have other issues? Is there something I’m missing? Just wondering if anyone else has relevant experience before I go whole hog on a new wiper motor.
Thanks!

 

[Steve93]

I had a similar issue with my '93 ATX. I replaced the multifunction switch on the steering column, but it didn't solve the problem. (It did fix the non-cancelling turn signals) I found a used wiper control module on eBay, and problem solved. It's mounted under the dash above the accelerator pedal along with several other modules. You can try re-flowing the solder joints in it, as suggested by several others, but given the 18 volts that it was subjected to, it's possibly fried.

The one I got was for a '93 - '97 Lincoln Mark VIII, part number E7SB-14A624-BB. Others might also work.

 

[SHOrod]

If you opt to replace the wiper control module and find that was the issue, I'd be interested in paying your shipping cost to send the failed unit to me. As these parts become more challenging to find, it would be nice to determine the rebuild potential for failed units. Fixing things like this is a hobby for me as an enthusiast to help keep these on the road, not something I'm looking to make a business out of.

-Rod

 

[Adharan]

I had a similar issue with my '93 ATX. I replaced the multifunction switch on the steering column, but it didn't solve the problem. (It did fix the non-cancelling turn signals) I found a used wiper control module on eBay, and problem solved. It's mounted under the dash above the accelerator pedal along with several other modules. You can try re-flowing the solder joints in it, as suggested by several others, but given the 18 volts that it was subjected to, it's possibly fried.

The one I got was for a '93 - '97 Lincoln Mark VIII, part number E7SB-14A624-BB. Others might also work.

Fantastic, that’s so helpful. I’ll look into replacing the control module with a used unit. Thanks so much!

 

[Adharan]

Can’t believe it’s been a year—just wanted to put a bow on this in case anyone else needs to refer to this thread in the future. It was indeed the wiper module under the dash. Pulled it and had a friend I know test the board - specifically it was one of the large relays on the board, located in the middle of the row of 3. I’ve circled it on the board in one of the attatched pictures. It’s labeled “OMRON G80S-UA-007112 F3LF-14A640-AA” (also pictured). You can also see my board—minus the relay—to see where it was originally. We jumped the pins and I was still able to use the wipers kind of, until I (only last week) was able to get a replacement off of a parts car and get wiper operation back to normal.

I spent a ton of time looking up the relay, hoping I could buy a replacement or even just figure out the specs so I could find a compatible one but there’s no documentation about this part at all. I’ve seen on some other ford forums that it’s used on a few different ford models across multiple years, but I’ve not seen any comprehensive list of info on what models or years. If I wasn’t able to find a parts SHO thanks to a friend, I would have gone to the pull-a-part and started checking wiper boards from other fords from the era and hoping one of them had one of these relays.

Huge thanks to everyone for your help, especially @Steve93 for pointing me in the direction of the wiper board!