I know this is very basic and I do not mean to offend but did you check the fuses?

Urlee,

Do you have intermittent wipers? The wipers on my 95 Lumina van would occasionally not turn on, stop in mid swipe, and do other annoying things, I found out that the pulse circuit board was defective, and it's a common problem on GM cars and trucks. If that's the case, you can buy a new board for about 30 bucks, and replacing it is easy. You may still want to get a mechanic to confirm that everything else is working before you replace it though.

GG

Thank you both for your replies.
I used the vehicle this morning and tried the wipers and to my surprise, they worked?
I value your feedback very much. No offense Roosevelt.
I am inclined to think what GG said is starting to happen?
Will see if that happens again, then for sure will have to be fixed.
~Urlee~

Break out your trusty test light and do continuity.
The current from the power supply must be running into an "open" somewhere.
Not a bad price($30),IMO, for the circuit board...and better that than the motor itself($50 to $100)

Thanks EW,
I see we both clicked at the same time.

~Urlee~

That problem drove me up the wall until I started searching for a price on a new wiper motor and found the pulse board was also available separately. I checked a little on google, and found this was a common problem. I had that motor out four or five times, checking for voltage at the connector and other checks, with nothing unusual showing.

Unbelievably, the first replacement module was also defective, and wouldn't let the wipers turn off.

GG

there is also a recall on the wiper control boards on the Chevy trucks 95-98ish...had my 95's replaced by recall and bought the entire motor from a salvage for $20 for the 98..used just the board..easy to swap out..5-10 minute job. They both acted the same and worked fine until I trade them both in. Hope this is of some help.

As with many systems with a printed circuit board you can look it over very closely even with a magnifying glass and see if there are any cold solder joints that you can just get melted back into place, this seems to be somewhat of a problem universally from Honda main relays to Toyota headlight switches with tilt wheel and even GM wiper motor circuit boards. Give it a once over.

Duane in Japan

I believe these defective circuit boards can be diagnosed using a ohm-meter.

But a man must know which circuit to check and what the value should be..

Over ten years ago I had a Sony TV with cold solder joint problems.
The unit would draw too much current, shut down, cool a bit(a minute) and then I could restart.
At the restart, the voltage surge would "re-solder" the bad connections
This must have happened hundreds of times and several years of annoyance.
This TV lasted 15 years or so..

Since these defective pulse board problems seem to all be intermittent problems, they are hard to diagnose individually. There must be a known location or part on the board that is causing this problem, since they all do the same thing, with no major difference between the symptoms. Troubleshooting without a schematic is not easy. I've had the motor out and tried different fixes to find the problem more than a few times, checking voltage at the terminals from the switch, making sure all contacts were good. All with no luck. You could remove the motor, hook it up to run, and it would. Putting it back on the car, it would work like it should, until midway through a 300 mile run when it would rain for an hour, and the wiper would quit in mid-stroke. Stopping the car and moving the wiper arms by hand would cause the wipers to run again, and sometimes for a few weeks reliably. Putting in a new 30.00 pulse board is a lot easier and quicker than wasting more time in a search for a problem on the original board.

GG

I have to agree with you , Gooseberry.

I would like to see products that are more reliable to diagnose, but not necessarily better quality..
I think the better quality would make things too expensive. And they would break anyway, machines/electronics are like that...

But just $30 for that board - that is OK.. And if the dealer can diagnose, R and R within 30 minutes - that too is OK..

how do you replace a wiper motor pulse board and where is it located, I have a 1993 pontiac trans sport. I turn on the wipers and they will run but wont turn off or will stop in different positions. like 5 mins of this they will stop like they supose to. they run slow or fast but not in between when i have this problem.
thanks for the help

This problem has plagued GM vehicles since approx the mid 80s'. They had,and still do, thousands of recalls on the Circuit board and while it might seem the problem is solved, chances are VERY HIGH that within the first year the new circuit board will fail as well. The fix is to remove the circuit board and RE-SOLDER the cold joints. It only takes a few seconds to gain access to the board by removing the 3 Torx head screws on the wiper motor cover. After you take the cover off,you'll see the circuit board and you'll have to unplug the wiring harness to remove the board. Once you have to the board out,use a magnifying and look at the cold solder joints that are closest to where the wiring harness would be.I've seen DOZENS of these come into my shop and usually can have the problem fixed in about 20 minutes,and not because I'm some great Mechanic but simply because it is that easy to fix. GM has known about this problem for years and it amazes me that it has taken them so many years to change the design. After I had it happen to my own truck, I went into the shop one morning and after Re-soldering the board I got to thinking "what caused this in the first place". Well the first is obvious, POOR SOLDERING. But I knew that wasn't the ONLY reason for so many failures and then it occured to me that the constant pressure or weight of the Wiring harness HANGING at the connector puts unwanted stress on it and over time that constant pressure mixed with vibrations weakens the solder joints closest to the wiring harness. After seeing this I machined an Aluminum support arm to relieve the stress and BINGO, problem solved. Good luck and post back your results.