amfw
Full Member
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2008
- Messages
- 522
My first Bronco had the stock electric wipers. I didn’t run a wiper cover and thought the exposed linkage was VERY cool for all its wacky mechanical goodness. But tastes change, and like many, I now find having that big motor in your face is really distracting. I’ve seen the write up on the lower windshield cable setup and while it's cool, I think it's more work than I need to do 
. The dual wiper motors up top, while not the absolute cleanest, come off as plenty good for me, so that’s the direction I decided to go in.
I skipped the Wild Horses synchronized kit because the price combined with the lack of a rotary switch didn’t work for me (the unsynchronized kit at 200 is a decent deal, and if I were doing another order with them when I needed this, I might buy from them) . I set out piecing everything together myself. Links for source info all the parts I ended up using are at the end of the post.
Removal of the old switch and motor/linkage was pretty straightforward.
Here is the obligatory, “You are dealing with electrical components and wiring, remove the negative cable from the battery terminal before beginning.”
First step is getting your old setup out. Mine wasn’t stock, I had a big bulky aftermarket electric single motor setup in there. It came out easy enough after removing the retaining nuts on the exterior side of the windshield shafts and everything else on the inside. The wiring was just a matter of unplugging a harness.
After that was time to fold the windshield down. For many that's pretty easy. Unfortunately, as it was, the dashpad from the previous owner was still installed, along with the big ugly dashpad cover on top of it. I knew this stuff would not be getting reused so I not so delicately pried away what I needed to of the cover to expose the bolts for the windshield. Once those saw the light of day, I undid them and carefully folded the windshield down.
Switch removal was also pretty easy. Again, it wasn’t a stock switch so YMMV, but there was a small set screw to free the switch, and then another retaining nut to loosen before popping it out the back. I don't remember if the switch had a harness or not but it doesn't much matter, the wires need to be clipped anyway.
At this point You are pretty much done with removal. Your switch, motor and linkage should be gone and out of the way. The only thing that should be left is the wires running through the windshield.
The existing setup had 4 wires running through the windshield and into the dash. I removed one and left three. One of the three I left was a ground. You CAN ground the motors to the windshield frame, but that's not always a reliable ground. Since I had a nice solid ground already strung through the windshield frame I decided to leave that and use it. The other two wires I left to help me pull through my new wire looms.
Each motor has four wires going to it, 3 from the switch, and 1 to ground. I took my time on the wiring. I measured out the length approximately and left a good measure more beyond that, since wires always seem to need more length than you think.
I used printed out copies of the switch and motor wiring diagrams to make a chart that put them all together with my color codes.
(I ended up using white instead of "BLANK")
I used 14ga wire; 3 lengths of pink for motor one, and three lengths of black for motor 2.
I used heat shrink tubing to color code the ends of each wire so they could be identified once pulled through.
To group them, I neatly taped them every 12 inches or so, the three black wires together and the three pink wires together.
Then I fastened a bundle to one end of the leftover wire and began to pull it through.
I’m not sure of the BEST method to approach this, but what I did worked out well enough for me. To attach the wires I stripped the ends, twisted everything together really tightly and heat shrinked it. For my first try, I started at the bottom and tried to go up. I didn’t make it very far, and decided to try and reverse direction. Maybe it was just luck, but for me, fishing the wires from the top to the bottom worked much more easily than the other way around.The first bundle pulled off all the way at the bottom, but was easily snaked out,
The second bundle went through almost TOO easily.
Once your wires are through, the hard part is really over. The excess length needs to be trimmed before final installation. The motor shafts go through the holes in the windshield frame and I used a sheet metal screw to attach the bracket . I wired the motors and switch exactly as the instructions say, and they function as they should. It's important to take your time with prep for the wiring and make sure everything is properly identifiable, otherwise any trouble shooting takes a lot longer.
I don't like the cheap black split wire loom so I tried out an olive drab fabric tape that I had down in my shop. If it gets nasty, I can just cover it with split wire loom
The motors I got came set up for 110 degree sweep, but they parked in the wrong direction. The spec sheet wasn't very much help, but as I said, they are all basically the same so I watched a video for a different brand and it showed me how to do it. Long story short, it should end up looking like this PIC
My dash will be coming out before the spring, so I haven’t permanently mounted the switch yet, but it will get a fused 12v supply obviously. The knob will be a factory style knob, though I don't know yet if that requires modification.
For the arms I combined the spline/frame of the Schmitt Ongaro with the bent elbow piece of the Cherokee arm. To remove the end pieces from their arms, I just cut them. Either of them need to be stuffed all the way in to work, so it doesn't really matter how much you cut off the Cherokee arm. The Schmitt arm needs to be cut a little more carefully to avoid getting the leftover piece stuck inside. The Cherokee end is a little smaller than the Schmitt one, so I just gave it one wrap of tape to make it snug in there. Rivets may be smart here…ALSO the blades are reversible. For me, one orientation hit the bottom of the frame, the other was perfect. I put mine in like this:
I’m very happy in the end. The motors function as they should, the interior look is much cleaner, as is the exterior. The wipers are synchronized, park flat up to the top of the windshield, pop out for snow (which they will never see), provide good coverage, and press firmly against the glas
MISTAKES I MADE
-I put spade connectors on one end of the wire loom before I pulled it through. I wasn’t planning on using them at the motors, but when I switched directions fishing though they were on top. Not the end of the world but ate up some time
- I trimmed the wire ends at the switch before making note of which wire was which, so all my careful prep was kind of for nothing. I just used my multimeter to verify continuity and relabel.
. The dual wiper motors up top, while not the absolute cleanest, come off as plenty good for me, so that’s the direction I decided to go in.I skipped the Wild Horses synchronized kit because the price combined with the lack of a rotary switch didn’t work for me (the unsynchronized kit at 200 is a decent deal, and if I were doing another order with them when I needed this, I might buy from them) . I set out piecing everything together myself. Links for source info all the parts I ended up using are at the end of the post.
Removal of the old switch and motor/linkage was pretty straightforward.
Here is the obligatory, “You are dealing with electrical components and wiring, remove the negative cable from the battery terminal before beginning.”
First step is getting your old setup out. Mine wasn’t stock, I had a big bulky aftermarket electric single motor setup in there. It came out easy enough after removing the retaining nuts on the exterior side of the windshield shafts and everything else on the inside. The wiring was just a matter of unplugging a harness.
After that was time to fold the windshield down. For many that's pretty easy. Unfortunately, as it was, the dashpad from the previous owner was still installed, along with the big ugly dashpad cover on top of it. I knew this stuff would not be getting reused so I not so delicately pried away what I needed to of the cover to expose the bolts for the windshield. Once those saw the light of day, I undid them and carefully folded the windshield down.
Switch removal was also pretty easy. Again, it wasn’t a stock switch so YMMV, but there was a small set screw to free the switch, and then another retaining nut to loosen before popping it out the back. I don't remember if the switch had a harness or not but it doesn't much matter, the wires need to be clipped anyway.
At this point You are pretty much done with removal. Your switch, motor and linkage should be gone and out of the way. The only thing that should be left is the wires running through the windshield.
The existing setup had 4 wires running through the windshield and into the dash. I removed one and left three. One of the three I left was a ground. You CAN ground the motors to the windshield frame, but that's not always a reliable ground. Since I had a nice solid ground already strung through the windshield frame I decided to leave that and use it. The other two wires I left to help me pull through my new wire looms.
Each motor has four wires going to it, 3 from the switch, and 1 to ground. I took my time on the wiring. I measured out the length approximately and left a good measure more beyond that, since wires always seem to need more length than you think.
I used printed out copies of the switch and motor wiring diagrams to make a chart that put them all together with my color codes.
(I ended up using white instead of "BLANK")I used 14ga wire; 3 lengths of pink for motor one, and three lengths of black for motor 2.
I used heat shrink tubing to color code the ends of each wire so they could be identified once pulled through.
To group them, I neatly taped them every 12 inches or so, the three black wires together and the three pink wires together.
Then I fastened a bundle to one end of the leftover wire and began to pull it through.
I’m not sure of the BEST method to approach this, but what I did worked out well enough for me. To attach the wires I stripped the ends, twisted everything together really tightly and heat shrinked it. For my first try, I started at the bottom and tried to go up. I didn’t make it very far, and decided to try and reverse direction. Maybe it was just luck, but for me, fishing the wires from the top to the bottom worked much more easily than the other way around.The first bundle pulled off all the way at the bottom, but was easily snaked out,
The second bundle went through almost TOO easily.
Once your wires are through, the hard part is really over. The excess length needs to be trimmed before final installation. The motor shafts go through the holes in the windshield frame and I used a sheet metal screw to attach the bracket . I wired the motors and switch exactly as the instructions say, and they function as they should. It's important to take your time with prep for the wiring and make sure everything is properly identifiable, otherwise any trouble shooting takes a lot longer.
I don't like the cheap black split wire loom so I tried out an olive drab fabric tape that I had down in my shop. If it gets nasty, I can just cover it with split wire loom
The motors I got came set up for 110 degree sweep, but they parked in the wrong direction. The spec sheet wasn't very much help, but as I said, they are all basically the same so I watched a video for a different brand and it showed me how to do it. Long story short, it should end up looking like this PIC
My dash will be coming out before the spring, so I haven’t permanently mounted the switch yet, but it will get a fused 12v supply obviously. The knob will be a factory style knob, though I don't know yet if that requires modification.
For the arms I combined the spline/frame of the Schmitt Ongaro with the bent elbow piece of the Cherokee arm. To remove the end pieces from their arms, I just cut them. Either of them need to be stuffed all the way in to work, so it doesn't really matter how much you cut off the Cherokee arm. The Schmitt arm needs to be cut a little more carefully to avoid getting the leftover piece stuck inside. The Cherokee end is a little smaller than the Schmitt one, so I just gave it one wrap of tape to make it snug in there. Rivets may be smart here…ALSO the blades are reversible. For me, one orientation hit the bottom of the frame, the other was perfect. I put mine in like this:
I’m very happy in the end. The motors function as they should, the interior look is much cleaner, as is the exterior. The wipers are synchronized, park flat up to the top of the windshield, pop out for snow (which they will never see), provide good coverage, and press firmly against the glas
MISTAKES I MADE
-I put spade connectors on one end of the wire loom before I pulled it through. I wasn’t planning on using them at the motors, but when I switched directions fishing though they were on top. Not the end of the world but ate up some time
- I trimmed the wire ends at the switch before making note of which wire was which, so all my careful prep was kind of for nothing. I just used my multimeter to verify continuity and relabel.
