Snake Bite!

[njsteve]

They could very well be Neon brake calipers as the overwhelming majority of parts on the Gen 1 cars were sourced from existing parts throughout the Chrysler corporation. You like the 6-lug wheel hubs that came from a 1500 pickup truck?

I just had some expensive fun with my snake-car. I washed the car and then turned on the wipers for the first time in about 24 years. They promptly did their little "I Dream Of Jeanie" dance and then jammed together in the middle of the windshield. The Viper uses two separate electric motors - one for each wiper blade. They are synched through a series of sensors inside the motors. One worked fine, the other would start and stop and then get caught in the path of the passenger side blade. I then tested each by unplugging them and running power to the correct terminal on each motor. They both worked fine when separated.

Here is the important thing to remember for when yours start going out. The bad wiper motor is NOT the one that is stopping. The bad motor is the one that appears to be working fine.

It seems that the sensors in the one that is working fine are no longer sending the correctly timed signal to the other motor to swing - so it starts and stops awaiting the next signal that never comes. I had to order a new Mopar passenger side wiper motor which is no longer available but still stocked in some dealers (PN 4643065 at $248) and hopefully it will arrive next week. The driver's side part number is PN 4708171, in case you eventually need one or the other. These part numbers cover all the Gen 1 and Gen 2 Vipers.

My next project on the car is either the non-working Alpine cassette deck (no sound coming from the speakers) or the falling headliner in the detachable hardtop. Jeez, it's like a typical old car already...and it's only been 24 years.