www.iFourWinns.com

So I went down to the boat today (2001 V298) to start my prep for Earl. Flipped on the house battery and the helm switch on the 12v panel and my port side wiper comes on. Check the dash and the switch is in the off position but the light is on and the wiper is going. Flip it down to the both wipers position and back to off. Nope, still going. Flip it to starboard only...no luck. Pull the dash panel and disconnect all the wires from the rocker switch. The damn wiper is still going! Then I decide to pull the plug at the main panel...but guess what? Nothing on the panel is labeled "Wiper". The only way I could get it to stop was to turn off the power to the helm but obviously that's not a viable option. The only thing I can thing of at this point is to pull the headliner and try to disconnect it at the motor. That'll be a temp fix but I still need to find the root cause. Any ideas? We have big plans to spend our first night on the boat this coming weekend but that's probably not going to happen if I can't shut down the wiper motor.

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'01 Vista 298

According to the schematics in the owners manual (that I downloaded from fourwinns.com)
you have a seperate switch for each wiper. There also should be circuit breaker for each wiper near or on the helm. These are probably the type of breakers that pop out when tripped but can't be manually tripped. You can try to get at the back and disconnect the correct one. If you're brave you could try and stall the motor to pop the breaker.

My guess, the wiper motor won't park or the park switch is broken. There are two power lines to each motor, one is switched on and off by the switch, for your wiper control. The other is always on, it powers the motor after you turn it off, until the wiper finds the park position, then a switch on the motor turns it off.

Disconnecting the wires from the dash board switch did not help because the park power line is always on.

[url]http://assets0.fourwinnsmarketing.com/past_product/owners_manuals_by_year//2001/298[SLASH]328%20Vista%20Cruisers/Manual%20(Complete)%20-%205.9MB.pdf[/url]

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2008 V358 Two-tone Blue V/P Dual Prop 320 HP
Lake Winnipesaukee, NH

So I probably need to disconnect at the motor?

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'01 Vista 298

Very familiar with the broken park switch issue. This is what has happened to me twice now. When you open the walk thru window, it lays back on the port wiper blade and then someone (usually a kid) will turn on the wiper switch at the helm and then the wiper park switch breaks because the wiper is stuck under the window and can't go anywhere. The way I stop the wiper is to reach over the windshield and park the blade myself (very little pressure is needed). Maybe when the kids grow up, I will fix it again but it is not worth it right now. Poor design IMO.

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Current Boat: 2000 Four Winns 298 Vista
Previous Boat: 2000 Carver 406MY

Tried it but the motor doesn't stop. I think my only option at this point is to disconnect the motor until I'm ready to get a new one.

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'01 Vista 298

I studying the wiring diagrams, looks like you should have the following wires, for each wiper motor & switch:

At the motors: Black is ground, Red/blue is turn-on power from the switch, Red/Light-Blue is the park power.

Both the turn-on and the park wires go to the Helm Systems harness connector, J66 (12-pins). This connector also has the windlass, horn, arch lights, nav lights and cockpit lights in it.

From this connector, the wires go to the switches and the Red/Light-Blue (park) goes to the circuit breaker. If the breaker is on the removable dash panel, remove the panel and disconnect the Red/Light-Blue from the breaker.

...I think ...

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Gordon Arnold
New Hampshire

2003 268 Vista ..................................................................Prior: 97 245 Sundowner

Is your wiper moving when this happens or is the motor going but the wiper is stationary? Now I have a motor that is humming away no matter what and a wiper arm that sits there and does nothing. Do you think that if I move the wiper arm to one side or the other I may be able to trip the park switch? Not sure when I'll be able to get down there as I'm on the road now and Earl should be rolling in around the same time I get back.

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'01 Vista 298

Fixed it....at least for now. Simply moved the wiper arm a little to one side (maybe an inch) and it must have tripped the park switch and shut it down. Makes perfect sense after reading the posts in this thread. It only happened after I had installed and removed the cockpit cover....in the process of doing so I must have moved the wiper arm just enough to unseat the park switch. Thanks All!

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'01 Vista 298