Recently, in a heavy snowstorm, I was unable to turn on my windshield wipers (1973 2002) operated by the push switch on the end of the right-hand column stalk I remembered a Roundel/ story on this problem and discovered William Harris’ article in the October/November 1974 issue, page 13, to be very helpful. The operation of the turn signal arm up and down causes the two wires to the switch inside the column stalk to flex. Over a period of time they will crack and break Not the best design in the world Removing the turn signal control revealed that one of the wires had indeed broken from its solder connection on the signal housing. As suggested, I soldered in longer wires and used epoxy on the wires to eliminate any destructive flexing

Luckily, I had performed the Simm Modification (Roundel, October 1976, page 34) and was able to operate my wipers using the pulse lever. This turns out to be an important safety factor. The modification involves the installation of a toggle switch, which enables you to cut off the windshield washer pump to allow you to use only the built-in pulse feature of the washer system. The longer you hold the pulse lever in, the longer your wipers will operate up to a maximum of five cycles. This is a very useful, inexpensive, and highly recommended modification for 1973 through 1976 2002.

Author: John P McKay, Jr
Greenville, Delaware