Bypassing wiper switch as a road repair

[Catrik]

I'm on a road trip and wipers stopped working. Can I just pull wires through a spare fuse directly to the connector on the wiper motor (86 K10, two wires)?

Wiper fuse is fine. Wipers have stopped working some times before but always got working bery soon but anymore. Wipers always park normally so it is likely a problem with the wiper switch and not the motor.

[hatzie]

The wipers are a switched ground system not a switched hot...
You should be able to ground the HI or LO wire and turn the motor on.

Have you tried bypassing the delay/intermittent-wiper module on the outside of the steering column?  It should be right behind the steering column access panel in the knee bar sheet metal.
You should be able to unplug the module and plug the switch connector directly into the cab harness.  The switch pigtail will have three connections that don't have a mate on the cab harness.  These are from the delay potentiometer in the stalk switch to control the delay timer.  However... HI, LO, and OFF should work without the delay module if the switch is OK.

[Catrik]

The wipers are a switched ground system not a switched hot...
You should be able to ground the HI or LO wire and turn the motor on.

I don't have a delay module. What colour should HI and LO be? I'm stuck on the side of the road now, started raining and can't see anything in the dark!

[bd]

Gray is low-speed ground, purple is high-speed ground.

[Catrik]

Thank you! I just grounded the purple with a with a jumper and now wipers work with the normal wiper switch again.

I found this diagram from manual named X8632_1986_GMC_Light_Duty_Truck_CK_G_P_10_to_30_Service_Manual.pdf it should be somewhere on this site. It seems like you would need to open the motor case and have enough wire. But if jumping


So if someone else is having the same problem and jumping gray/purple doesn't work then that is the surest way to get wipers running.

[bd]

Check and clean the black wire ground connection to the cab sheet metal adjacent to the emergency brake pedal assembly.