Wiper goin haywire

[Sshrum]

My 79 shorty all of sudden the wipers goin nuts. Has anyone had issues with the wipers not functioning correctly? Mine won’t work at all on low speed, but does work on high speed. Also when I select the intermittent switch it swipes a half of a cycle, or even less, then all of a sudden it will work as it should for a few minutes then start doin it again. Is the a pulse circuit on the motor? Any info is greatly appreciated.

[MountainManJoe]

Welcome to the forum.
Hopefully @WoodButcher sees your question. He's more familiar with the early stuff than I am.

[WoodButcher]

Lol, yeah.
AIW, I got that on my '93.
Arbitrary, Intermittent Wipers!
I've had this issue in an '02 and a '97 as well.
First place to look is the wiper motor control board. Pop the cover, IIRC there are 3, #25 or 7 torx screws holding it. Near where the wiring plugs in at the bottom I found cold solder and a couple traces that had appear to be worn off. You can find a new board at Rock auto $70 or fleabay but I repaired mine. You also want to clean, inspect and re grease the plug itself. often this is a problem too.
Next on the hit list is the turn signal, wiper control stalk. Not because this is a likely problem but because of the way I was taught.
ABC, in order thinking, cost, ease of repair, next on the list, yada yada. Anyway it was 5 bux from the junkyard so my next step. It can be bought new but for $35 it would not have been my next step.
Third in my case is inside the column where the switch actually is. My '93 hasn't gotten bad enough for me to dig this deep yet but I will. She has the tilt column and years ago I had an '87 s-10, a loose tilt column. I fixed it but it was not fun. The wipers / turn switch is way above the tilt mechanism but I still don't like going into the column. Back then I had only a Haynes or Chilton manual so it really isn't that bad. I don't know that you will find the part new, you need an '89 don't you? I'm sure cleaning inspection and a re grease would work wonders here. The old dielectric grease solidifies, gums up the works. Good luck!

[Dobbie]

On my '87 G30 the wipers act strange. They come on at random. It's humbling to be sitting at a 4-way stop on a sunny day and have your wipers suddenly begin to cycle. I didn't feel like opening the column and installing a new wiper switch so instead I installed a "kill switch" on the lower dash by splicing into the wiper's power feed from the back of the fuse box. Truthfully, that procedure was a hassle in its own right. But now the wipers don't come on like the van is haunted.

[WoodButcher]

Have you looked at the control board Dobie? much easier to get to and has been the fix for 2 astro I've had.
I've pulled the fuse many times in my '93, bumps, fast stops, even the wife after taco bell will set them off. Today the switch sit on a shelf in my shop. I'll get to it! LOL