Wiper motor relay.

Fiatpwr

True Classic
Using this thread as a guide I rigged up a plug & play wiper relay harness to try and speed up the wipers on the 131.



Tomorrow I will pick up an inline fuse and see if it works.
 
Cool...

I would be interested to hear what difference it made. I.e. how many more rpm it provides. My wipers are pretty good but not super-duper.
 
I can't give hard numbers but relays on my wipers made a HUGE difference, from hi being barely good enough in a steady rain to medium being plenty good.
 
I updated my harness by eliminating the red power wire. I got smarter overnight.:geek:


Looks like it belongs.


The test:
I picked up 4 rotations per minute! The motor sounds a lot more steady and it doesn't seem to be working as hard. I also pulled the linkage out and cleaned and lubed everything. Lots of work for something I use about once a year.
 
Looks right at home. My understanding is the stock wiper power comes through the ignition switch, so your original idea might have worked even better.
 
the whole idea is to give the wiper motor power right off the battery (like any relay really) so not sure how your 2nd iteration draws the power
 
You may be right. I'm getting power from the original wiper source at the connector. It's orange in the first picture. I need to consult a wiring diagram to see if it travels through the ignition switch.

I ditched the power from the starter idea because I really want keyed ignition. I could easily put that wire back on and try it out.

The point is to give full power to the wipers through the relay. This still accomplishes that doesn't it?
 
The orange wire is ignition-switched power, also for brake lights and heater fan, etc.

Use the original wiper motor power to trigger your relay, and it will mimic the original setup. Draw your (30) power from the battery and it should unload the ignition switch.
 
The orange wire is ignition-switched power, also for brake lights and heater fan, etc.

Use the original wiper motor power to trigger your relay, and it will mimic the original setup. Draw your (30) power from the battery and it should unload the ignition switch.

And it will take the load off of the wiper switches as well thus reducing your resistance loss across that switch and all the wires in between.

I would use an inline fuse holder on the wire coming from the starter in addition. We know you have onenof those :)

Karl
 
The final arrangement

I went back to the first setup with the addition of a 20amp inline fuse run to the starter.

I went from 24 rpm to 36! The next test will be to see if the blinkers still slow when I hit the brake pedal.
 
I am sure the blinkers will indeed slow as the loading on the ignition switch hasn't really changed.

You might consider a load reduction relay for the switched items on the ignition switch.

Basically you would remove all the non engine related loads from the ignition switch to a relay with just the exciter wire going to the relay from the switch. This would put the fan, lights etc on the relay which will reduce the voltage drop when using any given item is used and extend the life of the ignition switch.

VW has long used this strategy which I have found to work well
 
Slow blinker fix...

To remedy slowing blinkers, which use a thermal relay as stock, simply replace it with a NAPA EL13 or similar electronic relay. Blinkers will always have the same flash rate thereafter.
 
You might consider a load reduction relay for the switched items on the ignition switch.

I did a little research on VW Vortex. The load reduction relay only cuts the load in the start position. Once the key is back to the run position everything is back through the switch. At least that's how the VW is set up.
 
I did a little research on VW Vortex. The load reduction relay only cuts the load in the start position. Once the key is back to the run position everything is back through the switch. At least that's how the VW is set up.

On the VW's I am familiar with the purpose of load reduction relay may be to cut power to certain accessories during starting, but at no time does power to these accessories go through the ignition switch. See wiring diagrams for the '87 GTI 16V below (shamelessly lifted from The Unoficcial GTI 16V Home Page):


wd87-113.jpg


wd87-114.jpg
 
This is a way of using two relays to create a load reduction relay and take the load off of the ignition switch


Loadreductionrelay_1.jpg

Thanks Karl, that's pretty cool. I'm a visual guy.:shock2: Now I need to find out exactly whats going on at my ignition switch.
 
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