240 General: No intermittent rear wiper

[qwertyuiopseb]

Hi folks, it's come to that time of year when I need the wipers on nearly everyday. My front wipers are absolutely perfect and so is the rear one.. BUT you guessed it, there's no intermittent function on the rear one. It's either on or off. Printed on the wiper stalk is the 'on' position with the slider but no intermittent picture and when I slide it to the blank slide it does nothing. I would like to make the rear wiper work with an intermittent function. Please help me!

[Paul240480]

I would hazzard a guess at the wiring through the tailgate hinges is starting to break up......

[Fridazadilak]

If it is the tailgate wiring...try this thread.

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=119074

[Derek UK]

If your rear wiper is working normally, on or off sounds encouraging, it might be the relay that controls the intermittent function.

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=56232

[stephend]

It may also be the motor itself. The intermittent function packed up on my 740 (it was also running very slowly), and a replacement motor cured all the problems. It's a while since I fixed it, but from memory the intermittent mode has a separate feed. If that's getting power correctly, it's presumably the motor at fault, not anything in the supply chain. (Caveat: the 240 may not be the same as the 740!)

[qwertyuiopseb]

Thanks for all the replies so far! I can eliminate a few things straight away:
My father rewired the tailgate a little while ago to fix the sprayer.
Before that the intermittent function has never worked.
When the wiper is set to the 'on' position it works 100% perfectly, correct and consistent speed.
When I press the spray button on the tip of the wiper stalk, the rear window is sprayed for the duration of the press and the wiper is also on for the duration of the press unless the button is pressed just once for about a second and it will spray and then wipe several times just as it would have when it was new in the showroom.
It is interesting to note that there is now diagram for an intermittent setting on the wiper slider on the wiper stalk, while the slider will slide in two directions only the 'on' setting will work and the blank side acts the same as the centre position (no wiping).

I still could double check the wiring at some point when I have time though.

All of this makes me think that an intermittent function for the rear wiper was an optional extra?
For reference the car in question is a 1984 Volvo 240GL estate M46 B23 (Australian market)