This problem has been happening on and off the last few months, basically the wipers go through their normal sweep just fine, but when you turn them off, or when they pause on intermittant mode, they don't go all the way back down but instead stop about halfway, at a 45* angle across the windsheild. Until yesterday if this happend I would just bump the "mist" part of the switch and they would go back down. However this isn't working anymore, they will go down a bit, but if you try to get them to go horizontal it just sends them into another full sweep.
I did some searching and all the threads seem to be about rebuilding a siezed rack (I did this several years ago and this is the first issue I've had so far) nothing mentions a problem like this that I could find. Is this a problem in the motor/rack assembly itself? I'm not even sure how they know when to stop...
Any help is appreciated before I start swapping random parts
Thanks
Sean

 

Took a look at a spare wiper motor I have and there is a switching mechanism on the large spur gear in the wiper's drive assembly (whatever you'd call it) This is what tells it to stop turning and I assume its just dirty or not contacting correctly on the one in my car, Will have to take it apart tomorrow and see if I can find the problem, I'll post once I do.

 

Took the wiper rack out and looked at that switching mechanism and the grease was really dirty and the contacts looked a bit worn, cleaned it up and bent the tabs a bit to make sure they make solid contact and it seems to be working fine now. Hopefully it will stay that way lol

 

Yep. Looks like this inside, when you take it apart:



After being properly cleaned and repacked with grease, it should look like this inside: