well, we finally got my 79 244 back together after replacing the a/c motor! what a job! it was determined that my ignition switch was bad at the electrical end so it was replaced and lo and behold the wipers came on and the horn honked! problem is now they do not stop! until i remove the fuse! could this be the wiper switch on the column? the idiot light on the dash with the little bulb still comes on when i brake but all the lights work, including the 3rd light in the window, any suggestions? thanks, don

Don --

At least three things can cause the wipers to continue running. One is a bad column switch. The second is a bent or misadjusted cam-driven switch, internal to the wiper motor. The third is the intermittent sweep relay, which will display exactly this symptom if it becomes wet. (And it can be revived—BTDT several times.)

A common cause of an illuminated bulb-out warning light is either mis-matched bulbs or a poor contact in a socket or connector, which creates high resistance. The high resistance lowers the current to that one bulb, and the sensor responds to this mismatched current.

However, if you have a '79 (which did NOT come originally with a 3rd brake light), then you musta wired the 3rd light in yourself. Probably you wired it in parallel with one of the existing lights. Now, when you hit the brakes, the sensor measures the current to each side, and sees a large difference 'cause one side is the current for two bulbs, but the other is for only one bulb. BIG mismatch!

Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

You are probably missing a ground wire either at the wiper motor or at the column switch. If you didn't touch the switch and this happened after you did the blower, then the motor is most likely the part without the ground.

The lights out warning is a separate problem. Either you have mismatched bulbs in the brake circuit, or you have a bad ground or circuit board at one of the rear light assemblies. The warning works by comparing the current going to the left and right circuits, and as every Volvo owner knows, it's very sensitive to differences. Replacing bulbs in pairs (same bulb on opposite side of the car) has always been good practice, but on a Volvo, it's a necessity.

Are you sure that the switch you replaced it with is the same internally? They may look the same on the out side but cross connect differently inside.

Sounds like you have torn the puppy down quite a ways. Something is going to the wrong place and that would be hard to quess from here.

Good Luck!