I have disassembled the windshield wiper switch and found the contacts both corroded and out of place. I have polished them, glued them into place, and checked the function. All is good except a single ball bearing jumped out of the mechanism when I opened it and I’m not sure where it’s supposed to be. Does anyone know? It’s an ‘87 and the switch says Lucas 176SA.

 

Did you try putting it in the middle "hole" of the 3 and then reassembling. It would appear that as that "drum" rotates the ball moves to the next "hole" and holds it in that position until the rotates again. My guess is that the track in the lubricant was made by the ball rolling from side to side as the "drum" rotates.

 

I spent quite a while trying to find instructions on how to fix this switch, but I couldn’t. So what I’m going to do now is post a group of pictures about how it works. There is the outside metal cover that is riveted to the plastic back. The arm moved through four positions which are located by V shaped indentations in the plastic back. There’s a little semicircular bit of plastic that fits into these Vs, it is held in place by a spring. Beyond the Vs is the contact board. This is a piece of plastic with a diagonal edge. There are three contacts on one side and one on the other that are pieces of copper held in place by hopes and dreams. There is also a copper stud going though the board. These were corroded and loose when I took it apart, I polished them and held them in place with a few drops of superglue. There is a second spring which exerts upward pressure on this board whereas the switch arm exerts downward pressure on it. Depending on the height on the board different pins are connected to each other. The path in the grease is from the top of the arm moving though the different positions.







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The bump my finger is on is the cause of the grease track.

 

What caught my eye in the very first photo, first post, was the SPRING. It's just barely visible in the first pic... Can you give a little more detail of that? A ball bearing loaded to do its job sometimes involves a spring and divot set up...?

 

The ball bearing is indeed "on top of " the spring. It serves to have stops at the different switch seetings/locations. I remember it was a PITA to re-assemble. The orignal spring is somewhere in my workshop...

 

Did you find ball possition?

 

Yes. On top of the spring, under the contact slider.