Wipers. 1 out of 3 put themselves away.

[3_97_Sports]

I have 3 97 sports
On 2 of them, when you turn the wipers off, the wipers go to the off position and stay there, blocking the view above the hood.
On the other one, the wipers go to that same off position but then they go down and tuck themselves away closer to the cowl.
What is the difference in these 2 different setups in the same year/model cars?
It is not a wiper arm placement issue, the 2 motors just don't make that tuck away movement.

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

We talked about that here recently because I was considering a retrofit. Not sure if it was its own thread or in one of the daily threads; I'll check.

The tuck away movement was only on the Mark. If you have it on a Bird, it was either retrofit or a spec I haven't heard of. It requires a different motor/gear and control module.

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

Here's the thread:

Thread 'Wiring Diagram Request: Wiper Parking Position Dance'

Jul 29, 2025

As mentioned in the junkyard crawl thread, I'm really interested in installing a Mark wiper motor into the MN12.

On the Mark, when not in use the wipers descend into a lower park position.

Is it necessary? No. Does it appeal to my inner geek? Oh yes.

So far, what I think I determined is that the connector on the Mark motor has seven wires vs. only six on the Bird.

I have the diagrams for MN12. Could anyone provide me with the wiring diagrams for the Mark VIII? Any year should do. Otherwise the diagrams for any Ford with that type of wiper motor, e.g., 90s Panthers.

Thanks in advance.

• 1997ThunderbirdLXV6
• Replies: 6
• Forum: Audio / Electronics

• 

 

[3_97_Sports]

I am pretty sure that car was unmolested when I got it, I don't drive that one anymore. I should pop the cowl off and swap the motors, and get a part number of what I have in there.
I moved it across town the other day, and when I turned the wiper off, I remembered that was a thing on that particular car.

 

[Kenz]

The wiper linkage seems sloppy and has a lot of play on these cars. Adjusting the arm position helps a bit with getting them to park in the correct position. But depending on how much drag is on the wipers when they are being used, seems to account for them stopping about half an inch in either direction.

Not sure if that was how they were when new, or if it's just the bushings getting worn out from time. Either way the wiper setup on these cars is a 4/10 IMO

 

[3_97_Sports]

Maybe by April 21st 1997 they had run out of tbird wiper motors in the parts bin

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

This video shows how the mechanism works towards the end of the video:

 

[3_97_Sports]

Got me curious to find out what's up.
The other 2 aren't broken or extremely sloppy or anything, they just don't even attempt to make a hide away motion.

 

[theterminator93]

Yeah the parking motor action was a Mark VIII thing only.

In reality, the Mark VIII wipers have a shorter sweep across the windshield. When they're on they raise up a few inches and start/stop their sweeping action from that position for a faster, shorter sweep. Then when you turn them off they park back down to the bottom. It actually looks kind of weird when they're on IMO.

The MN12 wipers have a full sweep from the parked position on up. What you're describing sounds normal - aside from the one car having a parking action. That one must have been retrofitted at some point.