Wiring question

Replacing a wiper motor and have a yellow, orange and blue wires

The wiper motor has red, blue and black connections. Thoughts on which wire goes to which connection?

Can you post a couple pictures?

A multi meter will tell you what the yellow, orange and blue wire does. The installation manual for the motor should tell you what the red, blue and black connections are for.

Is this a two speed setup or is this a self parking set up?

Any time questions are asked it helps to have make and model of any involved components, in this case the wiper motor AND how it's being controlled. This because someone else might that that hardware, even from a different boat, and have some insights to offer.

Here is a typical schematic…

I’d also say determine the GND first. Use the DMM in ohms/continuity mode to check which wire is connected to motor chassis. After that it should be easy !

In DC (At least many modern 12v) yellow is usually Hot and Blue is Grnd. Some devices still use the older Red=hot, Blk = Grnd.

I'd assume:
(motor)Red -> Yellow(boat)
(motor)Black -> Blue(boat)
(motor)blue -> Orange (boat)

However this is simply deductive reasoning. I'm not an electrician.

Shrew said:

In DC (At least many modern 12v) yellow is usually Hot and Blue is Grnd. Some devices still use the older Red=hot, Blk = Grnd.

I'd assume:
(motor)Red -> Yellow(boat)
(motor)Black -> Blue(boat)
(motor)blue -> Orange (boat)

However this is simply deductive reasoning. I'm not an electrician.

Click to expand...

Yellow shouldn't ever be hot. Current ABYC recommendation for DC is red hot, yellow ground (to avoid DC ground being confused with a black AC hot). And then there's stupid stuff, like most of the factory wiring on my boat that uses black = hot, white = ground for DC to match the AC colors.

Shrew: I'm curious about your Yellow/positive and Blue/negative. Is that somewhere other than the US?

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rslifkin said:

Yellow shouldn't ever be hot. Current ABYC recommendation for DC is red hot, yellow ground (to avoid DC ground being confused with a black AC hot).

Click to expand...

The way I know it agrees with rslifkin. To elaborate:

In DC distribution wiring, it was typically:

Red = Positive and Black = Negative.

However with more and more AC wiring on boats, and with their black being positive, it has changed to avoid dangerous confusion. So the modern way for DC is:

Red = Positive and Yellow = Negative.

Most boats will still have quite a bit of Black = Negative in the DC system, but newer wires may/should be yellow.

Of course with some items you add to the boat, they seemingly choose colors at random But the manual for the item should (hopefully) specify.

The correct answer was given above. Use a multi-meter and see what your existing wiring is, and then match it with your new motor.

There are at least two different schemes on wiper wiring.
In one the park circuit is always hot and may have it's own fuse to protect that wire.
In the other the park function works off the same lead that powers the wiper & is hot only when the wiper switch is turned to "off".
You can't replace one type with the other w/o some rewiring of your boat's system, maybe requiring use of a proprietary switch and you can't mix the two types on the same switch.
There may be hybrid schemes as well.

Vetus motors, for one, use the second system and most others system one.
You don't normally find out which type park system you bought until you look at the wiring diagram that comes with the motor...

rslifkin said:

Yellow shouldn't ever be hot. Current ABYC recommendation for DC is red hot, yellow ground (to avoid DC ground being confused with a black AC hot). And then there's stupid stuff, like most of the factory wiring on my boat that uses black = hot, white = ground for DC to match the AC colors.

Click to expand...

And then there are changes over the years.
The very old stuff on my boat used the protocol in place in 1980.
The newer stuff used whatever was in place at the time, and now there is yellow in the latest protocol.
I have some where red is hot, white is ground.
Some where black is hot, white is ground.
Some wiring has red tape on black wiring, to show that wire is hot.
My newest is my 2019 Solar installation, red is hot, black is ground.
Finding out what connects to what is sometimes interesting.

3 supply wires, if the control switch is two position, one is high speed, one is low speed and the third is ground.
OR
one is switched hot, one is always hot for park, one is negative.
More info needed.

Yellow is often negative in 12vdc. Isn't this a ABYC thing? red (+) yellow (-)

Shrew said:

In DC (At least many modern 12v) yellow is usually Hot and Blue is Grnd. Some devices still use the older Red=hot, Blk = Grnd.

I'd assume:
(motor)Red -> Yellow(boat)
(motor)Black -> Blue(boat)
(motor)blue -> Orange (boat)

However this is simply deductive reasoning. I'm not an electrician.

Click to expand...

Lollygag1 said:

Replacing a wiper motor and have a yellow, orange and blue wires

The wiper motor has red, blue and black connections. Thoughts on which wire goes to which connection?

Click to expand...

You need to download the wiring diagram from the wiper motor mfgr.
I just went through this. I have two different types, mfgrs., of wiper motors and guess what, they each use a different colour scheme. On both though the motor case is the ground but with the way these things are done I would not even count on that.

And I agree that for a question like this you need to say specifically what you have, mfgr., and model.

Wiper

Most self parking wipers have a continuous positive supply and the switch controls the negative
This enables the self parking function to work by supplying another negative until the wiper is parked

I forgot and wasn't using my noodle.
I just went through this nonsense a couple months ago.

Prepare a wee chart of the wires and the colours.

Find the ground wire first. Often attached to the exterior at the end of the motor itself OR the bracket that secures the motor free end. Double check with your multimeter. Should show almost no resistance.

Then apply 12V to any wire and note what it does.
---One will be for the fast speed.
---One will be for the slow speed.
A visual comparison will tell you which is which. If you have the two speed wires the shaft will turn continuously.

--- one will be for the parking function. The third wire should be the parking lead. Once you figure out the speeds then confirm by simply energizing the last lead. If already parked it may not move. Double check by energizing either of the two speed leads to just get the shaft to move a few degrees. THen energize the third wire again and watch. If it moves and then stops you have confirmed the park wire.

Label them and keep the little chart.

C lectric
Now thats using your head.
Logical problem solving!