GM Wiper Moter & Paluse Boards

rooster · May 21, 2004, 09:28:36 AM

For about a year the wipers havent been working well on the GMC pickup I own, sometimes they work other times not, just smack the wiper moter with your hand usually will get you down the road ok. Sence my wife drives the pickup everyday to work the complaints have been piling up for some time, it was time to do something about it. The parts store wanted about 65 exchange for a rebuilt moter. While at the parts store the guy behind the counter warned me that it was probly not the moter and said what I needed was a " pulse board" (A circut board inside your wiper moter unit), The cost of a new board is about 30. Thats alittle better! I took the cover off the wiper moter to inspect the board and found that one of the contact arms on the board just needed bent alittle to make good contact fixing the wiper problem. Thats even better! Though this might be usefull to someone else!

Canuck · May 21, 2004, 10:17:20 AM

Been there, done that.

Lasted for a while, repeated and started to fail more frequently. Visited GM dealer and picked up a new circuit board ($67 Cdn) and was final cure. Parts guy told me they were a frequent failure item and at 60000 miles it was amazing I hadn't replaced it already.

rooster · May 21, 2004, 11:19:06 AM

Quote from: "Canuck"Been there, done that.

Lasted for a while, repeated and started to fail more frequently. Visited GM dealer and picked up a new circuit board ($67 Cdn) and was final cure. Parts guy told me they were a frequent failure item and at 60000 miles it was amazing I hadn't replaced it already.

Good gounding also seemed to play a role in the falure to work all the time, The wireing loom carrys it own ground wire but a better ground of the moter improved proformance, I removed paint where bolts go into body and added extra ground wire to bolt. I think a volt meter could be attcheted to the contacts ( with the borard pluged into the loom) and checked for intermittent operation! meaning the the board is at fault! I have seen boards on e-bay for about 28.00.

oiler · May 21, 2004, 06:17:49 PM

Most of the time if you resolder the 4 points on the board that are the closest to the wiring connector you'll fix them.
If you look closly you'llseethat the solder will be broken all the way around the circuit pin.
The vibration from the harness and connector breaks them.
There is a safety recall for 92-97 trucks where GM willreplace the boardat no charge
Jeff

rooster · May 22, 2004, 08:22:49 AM

Quote from: "oiler"Most of the time if you resolder the 4 points on the board that are the closest to the wiring connector you'll fix them.
If you look closly you'llseethat the solder will be broken all the way around the circuit pin.
The vibration from the harness and connector breaks them.
There is a safety recall for 92-97 trucks where GM willreplace the boardat no charge
Jeff

Jeff, thanks for the info! I have a 94 GMC, Im not the orignal owner so I dont know if the recall applies to me. I took a picture of the board when I had it out but didnt know about the bad soder joints, if I have to take it out again I will check them.

oiler · May 22, 2004, 09:39:20 AM

You've got it exactly.
The one point with the red glue on it hardly ever breaks but the other 4 I do all the time.
Jeff

40_Tudor · May 24, 2004, 09:57:05 AM

I had to replace this board on a 97 Yukon I bought a few weeks ago. The blades would stop any place they wanted to. I got a new board from NAPA and it's working OK now.
Wholesale was ~$45, not sure about retail.

rooster · May 26, 2004, 03:45:04 PM

Quote from: "oiler"You've got it exactly.
The one point with the red glue on it hardly ever breaks but the other 4 I do all the time.
Jeff

Jeff, I removed the board from the GMC and the connections were cracked where you said, also a break elsewhere, soldered all back and so far working well. Thanks again for the helpful info!

oiler · May 26, 2004, 10:00:35 PM

sweeet

rooster · March 18, 2007, 11:54:37 AM

I came back to this post to get the link to send to a buddy!

As long as i'm here I thought I would report the condition of my repair on the pulse board of 3 years ago. It is all working well. Thanks again Oiler,

Roadstar · March 19, 2007, 06:52:31 PM

Just replaced the Pulse board in my 1997 S 10, it was doing the same thing, stopping where ever and sometimes not workiing.

It was about $25 my cost at the dealer and took me about 20 minutes to change.

What a treat to have the wipers working again like they should.

oiler · March 19, 2007, 11:03:27 PM

Quote from: "rooster"I came back to this post to get the link to send to a buddy!

As long as i'm here I thought I would report the condition of my repair on the pulse board of 3 years ago. It is all working well. Thanks again Oiler,

I'm glad I could help
Jeff

Beck · March 21, 2007, 07:04:48 PM

My daughter drives my '03 Cavalier. When the wipers are in the delay mode the blade will sometimes (every 3 to 5 wipes)chatter on the way up. This isn't the blades bouncing on the glass it is in the motor or electronics(it's pretty violent). Do you think this is the pulse board also? Some of the GMs had a seperate control box for the delay right?

oiler · March 22, 2007, 06:53:14 PM

With the Cavalier you'll have to replace the entire motor assembly to fix it.
The pulse board is integral to the motor and hard wired right in.
Not hard to change though and the aren't real pricey
Jeff