Bad wiper motor, naughty wiper motor

[Joe Yakubik <75363.2524@CompuServe.COM>]

In the attempt to track down and kill the electrical gremlins that infested my
wiper motor I was trying to be thorough:

I dismantled the gearing/mechanical part of the wiper:  After a little confusion
as to how the thing worked the judgement was:  good working order, no apparant
reason to jam.

The relay was next, maybe it melted/failed and kept giving juice:  Nope,
switches like it's supposed to.

The switch?  Nope, it squirts fluid when pushed and stops when released --
sounds good to me.

Aha -- the electrical motor itself.  Snip, snip, unsolder, bend, bend.  Hmmm,
unusual that one brush should be completely worn down and the other okay.  I
wonder why this little rubber damper/vibration isolator is out of its hole and
the other two aren't?  

My snap judgement:  Manufacturing defect -- the motor wasn't exactly aligned in
case.  The brush on one side wore down, preventing the motor from ever
signalling the "UP" position to tell the motor to turn the other way to go to
the resting, unpowered position.  The motor kept trying to go further "UP" but
couldn't because the gearing mechanically stops it.  High current draw,
everthing heats up, melted plastic goo in the  motor, funny smells, etc.

Why the fuse didn't blow is anyone's guess.  Maybe it was just drawing 14.9
amps.

It's a good thing I've got a few wine corks sitting around just waiting to plug
up the hole in my rear deck.

Joe Yakubik