my wipers continue through a complete cycle to the park position after the ignition is turned off. As this is my 1st stingray, i am wondering if this is normal or should they stop when the ingition is shut off as othe cars do i have owned. Needless to say this has made it difficult changing wipers

www.geocities.com/gmackner/page2/oct1/my72.jpg

I do not know if your '72 has a vacuum operated wiper cover door or not. I do know that in '68 and '69 at a minimum, the wipers were covered by a vacuum operated cover and the wipers were designed to make sure they got into a "parked" position before the door closed on them. To change the wiper blades, a control was mounted in between the vacuum over-ride for the wipers and headlight assembies. It is located on the bottom of the dash under the steering column. You could just rotate the wiper over-ride knob and stop the wipers anyplace on the glass to effect a blade change or perform any other maintainance. I don't know if this was carried over to years after the vacuum door cover but you might look just under your steering column and see if there is an over-ride switch. If you have a wiring diagram, it might also show if there is any type of switch to stop the wipers in something other than a "parked" position.
There are enough other '71 and '72 owners out there who would know the answer to this without you having to pull out your hair so hang in there and maybe you will get a better response than I gave you.
Good Luck!

Your '72 should have the vacuum wiper door -- unless the hood has been changed. If so, you may need to start the engine...you will need the vacuum to open the wiper door. Turn the wipers on, then look under the driver's side dash, under the steering column. You will see a round knob in the center. Turning the know will stop the wipers. This is the wiper interrup switch. Once you have changed the blades, just turn the switch back and the wipers will continue to work normally.

thanks, i bought a nos owners manual but had it shipped home and haven't had a chance to read it. as 72 was the last year for the vac wiper cover i do have the round knob between the 2 vacuum knobs under the steering wheel. i have turned the center knob but never could figure out what it did and without the wipers running it wouldn't do anything. this will make changing the wiper blades much easier. even at slow speed i was having a hard time changing them (just kidding)

|UPDATED|10/23/2002 9:48:46 AM|/UPDATED|

FYI - The two stalks on either side of the wiper shutoff knob are worth mentioning as well. The left one when pulled down will allow the headlights to pop up and stay without turning on the lights. The right one when pulled down will allow the wiper door to pop up and stay without turning on the wipers.

As another side bar to this discussion, you might want to get used to locking the wiper door open with the over-ride, then turning on the wipers. When you are finished using the wipers, turn off the wipers and then use the over-ride to close the door. The wipers will tend to start to get "out of sync" after a lot of use and sometimes when you turn them off, the door catches them on the glass when it closes. If that happens, the wiper motor is still running trying to reach the "parked" condition. Not a good condition for the motor !

thanks for the wiper tip. i have had the wipers get caught in the cover and have had to keep reopen the cover and shut them off and shut the door. i will make it a habit of openning the cover first then turning the wipers on. then shutting the wipers off and closing the cover with override knob. or better yet keep it out of the rain

Gotta agree with Glenn on using the over-ride. There is a vacuum "switch" under the right hand windshield wiper that keeps the door open until the right hand blade parks, BUT...it sticks ocassionally on my car. I have a new one and will replace it when I get a round-2-it, but until then, I just use the over-ride.

Glad to know what each of the three knobs does. (I knew about the center knob but not the 2 on the sides.) Never had a need to use any of them yet but now I'll be ready if I run into problems.

Good tip Glenn. In fact, here's what my owners manual suggests for using the wiper cover panel override:

This manual control allows the panel to be left open when weather conditions require intermittent operation of the wipers.

Saves the cycle time each time you go to use the wipers, plus the "wear-and-tear" on the assembly.


Jim O.