I did this on my RS1800 a while back but forgot to post it in here!!


Ive currently aquired a spare fiesta stalk set and an escort stalk set with variable intermittant wipe. Idea being i want to change the time of the intermittant wipe as to be honest most of the time the standard timing is never quite right!!!!

Ive done the pin outs of both stalk units and would basically use the fiesta left stalk and escort right stalk variable unit wired into the fiesta right hand stalk with wiring for variable unit fitting with washer button wiring and then being soldered to the board in series in the original intermittant circuit.

Excellant, thats sorted the thoughts i had with the relay

What i will do then is wire the escort relay into the system , im hoping i can cheat and just plug it in and use the existing wiring. Im hoping to not hack apart the fiesta loom. Idea being its then a removable unit and i can just adjust wiring to see if it will work in my puma too.

OK, first remove hazard red cover, indicator relay and the 4 screws holding casing together. They are circled below:


then put the bits you take off somewhere safe!!



The top of the casing is held to the bottom with lots of little hook tabs. these are easily prised open using a tiny screwdriver. Just do it carefully and none will break off. Work systematically and remove the casing gradually.



Here depending on the age of the stalk you will find the bulb on indicator may or may not catch on the casing as you slide it up. if it does remove bulb!!

You can see the different designs of casing below.


carefully remove the top of the casing and put out of way and you should be left seeing this:


Dont be too alarmed if a little peice of metal like this falls out:



Stow this somewhere safe for the eventual reassembly of the unit. So you know where it goes the picture below shows where this rocking contact locates:



to remove the wiper stalk just cut the 3 wires leaving enough to solder on new wiring later on.

And thats the basic dissassembly.

So far both stalk units have been dismantled (erm might have fun putting it back together ). Ive removed the fiesta washer switch and trial fitted the escort variable wipe.



I still need to modify the fiesta cylinder section with the intermittant logo by cutting out the internals.



You can see here all the old washer button internals need to go. Luckily the switch mechanism and outer cylinder appear to be off two different moulds hence seprate plastic so im hoping destruction of the inner will mean it can be removed without any external damage to the cylinder. I will also add a white dot as on the escort one so you can visually see the setting rather than listen to the clicks as you twist switch.

those of you wondering how to remove the variable unit....... the unit has two plastic lugs holding it into the escort stalk. to remove the unit you need to release the lugs so unit slides out.

Obviously it helps to know where the lugs are so you can get small opticians flat bladed screw drivers in.

The following two pictures show where lugs are. First rotate the intermittant variable switch fully clock wise, then lugs are at 2.5 on dial and edge of bottom of knurled bit below no 6 on dial.




I tried dismantling the fiesta washer switch to retain the logo cylinder i was on about earlier, but it was much simpler to just hacksaw off the cylinder section off the escort stalk as:



You can see it loosly trial fitted together below:



I will obviously push it all closer when i epoxy it together. The additional logos on the fiesta stalk can be removed using heavy duty paint wipes or turps or similar. When all tight as i trialled it earlier you get some lugs extending from the washer swich which fit snugly into fiesta stalk and when glued will provide a bit of rigidity. worst case there is space to fit odd bits of plastic strip to make it rigid.

Next bit is wiring it in!!

Now i got my dremel i tidied up the stalk end so the two bits fit better:



so its now not wonky!!! I will have a tweak with the edges where its going to join with a file prior to epoxying the 2 together.

Also there are some nice little lugs that helped add rigidity on the escort stalk that just happen to do the same with the fiesta one!! so it shouldnt fall apart!!



I finished all my wiring diagrams ealier on and this is the result:



It does make sense to me!! i will decipher into a readable table when i finish this off as a guide!!

OK, in preparation of gluing the variable wipe unit to the fiesta stalk you firstly need to thread the wires down the stalk.

the colours of the wires on the escort and fiesta are different plus you have 2 extra wires for the variable wipe.

The variable wipe wires are the 2 blue wires. Essentially we will wire those wires up in sieries to the wire to the relay so the changing resistance will change the timing for intermittant wipe.

The wiring for the washers are coloured thus:

Fiesta Escort
-----------------------------
Black | Black
Grey | Green
Brown | White

ok once you thread wires down stalk make the two blue wires threaded seperately to the washer button wires.



the reason for this is when i wire in the variable resistor ive decided to do it outside the main unit rather than hacking about the tracks on the inside of the contact board in the unit.

in this second pic you can see that the way the washer wires are located so as to meet up with the origanal wires.



Ok now all you need to do is epoxy the variable unit and solder the wires together.

now its epoxied i taped it for a few hours.



and soldered the wires:



I ran out of heat shrink so tape will have to do I left the wires a bit long but trial fitting casing and theres no problem.

ok now the epoxys nice and dry i took the tape off and am pleased with the result:



Only thing i will do is clean up the plastic so its even colour where i removed the transfer label on the fiesta part of new stalk.

Now you need to reassmeble the unit!!!! There are several things you need to be careful with!!

Firstly refit any of the white plastic contacts you removed. The sliding contacts below are likely stuck with grease on the stalk still:



They are best relocated onto the main track board for reassembly:



Then remember to correctly relocate the brass metal rocker contact and keep close eye on it incase it moves.



then as you fit the wiper stalk you need to curve the new wires to fit and allow free movement of the stalk. also be aware the casing top has a screw that goes in that area.



then once both stalks are located it should look like this:



then all you need to do is refit the upper casing and screws and indicator shade and relay. Be aware the stalks will try and spring out of position so careful handling is needed until the casing is back together.

Then the final step is to take the unit back to the car and do a full trial of the original fiesta functions. This way you know you have reassmebled it correctly before you move on.

once youve done that your stalk should look like this:



Now the first part of the mod has been completed!!!

the next stage is making a wiring harness to link between car loom and stalk to incorporate the new variable intermittant function.

right stage 2.....

What this involves is making a wiring harness to mount the relay and so you dont cut up the fiesta loom. If you didnt mind playing with loom you could wire this in including having the relay wired into the fuse box as per original.

Anyone whos played with ford fuse boxes will know the modular design and the fact its relatively easy to pop out relay wiring blocks and clip in new ones.

firstly look at the fiesta wiring diagram:


and the escort one:



It is quite clear the difference is the variable wipe.

From the relays:



fiesta left, escort right

there is only one extra wire which is for the variable wipe timing circuit.

Aquire from a ford fusebox one of these:



Now you did cut off a bit of the old fiesta loom in the scrappy didnt you? and youve also got your spare stalk unit to chop up havent you?? goody.

this is the bit of wiring you need:



all we are going to do is make a simple wiring harness extension with one blue wire spliced from the variable wipe unit, with the other wire as an extension to do the 5th wire to relay.

Unfortunately you cant buy a male plug connector for the other end of the wire as the male section is part of the stalk unit.

but that wont stop us making our own one by hacking apart the old stalk!!!!

get your dremel and cutting discs at the ready. But first put on some safety goggles:



They might look sad but the disc fragments if one breaks can lodge in your skin thus:


which may look minor on skin, but imagine that being your eye!!

then dismantle the circuit board from casing of the unit and start hacking the plastic casing:



this is the bit you need to cut out:



and then trim it up!

Now start to cut out the equivelent bit on the circuit board:



once the two bits have been trimmed they should look like this:



and assembled look like this:



next you need to get out your soldering iron!!!

ok i got me soldering iron out and have made the wiring now!!!

The first wires we shall be soldering is the extension wires from the stalk unit to make our short extension lead. Firstly solder the wires on one side of the plug to the small circuit board:


Be careful to make sure the pins dont drop out as you solder and also adjust the pin angle by looking in the male plug from other side to keep them straight:



Then solder them from the other side. It can be quite awkward to do and its useful if you can clamp things so they dont move. This is when you could do with a 3rd hand!!!!

Once thats done you have yourself a basic extension lead. next you need to add a small wire which will be connected to one of the blue intermiitant wipe wires. So find the black wire with a green stripe then strip off a section of insulation. then fit a piece of extension wire. I used wire same colour cos i had some spare but any will do as long as its similar grade. Then solder it into place:



then once thats done insulate it:



next solder it to one of the blue wires after adjusting the length to suit. then insulate it



Next what you are going to do is glue the actual male plug board to the plastic piece so its one combined unit.

I used evostick but any similar glue should work. Firstly look at the plastic and you will see the ridge where most contact is made:



go completely psycho with the glue as thus:



then stick it to the plastic and fill any gaps with more glue:



A bit over kill maybe but i like things not to break!!!! Then leave 24 hours to dry before using some tape to insulate and tidy the whole subloom.

the next stage is to make your adaptor so you can fit the relay into the car!

First looking at the relays:



you can see they are identical except the centre pin on the escort relay in the bottom of picture. that is the timing for the intermittant wipe and that pin directly connects to the unused second blue wire from the variable wipe unit.

Next find yourself both a spare fiesta wipe relay and also a spare 5 pin relay holder to hold the escort relay:



make sure you cut about 8" of wire otherwise you will need to extend the wires (yes im an idiot!! ). Also take apart the (spare) fiesta relay and desolder the pin contacts from the circuit board and discard the circuit board. Essentially all you need are the 4 contacts to solder the equivelent wires from your relay holder:



once you have that all you need to is to solder the corresponding wires from the relay holder to the contacts. remember to insulate them as required and make sure they are correct by trial fitting the escort relay and tracing wires down to correspponding position on dismantled relay.

Once that is done take the casing of the fiesta relay and cut a hole in top to feed wires down:



then fit the correct pins in the right hole in bottom of the fiesta relay casing, again tracing as required to be sure. What you then need to do is plug it into a relay holder (which i just happened to have lying around!!) so that the pins are straight and alighned then glue the pins in place again.



then go psycho with the glue and push the upper casing in place so it looks like a fiesta wipe relay with 4 wires out the top. Then leave it 24 hours to harden again!!!! what you need to do is then extend the 5th wire from the escort relay holder so its long enough to reach from fuse box up behind dash and up to the new stalk next to the steering wheel. Ive made the wire too long so i can shorten it in situ with the intention of using a spade connector to plug it into the remaining blue wire. The completed relay subloom should look like this:



On a side note the neater way to do this is to dismantle the current fusebox. Its not that hard really, the relay holders are separate from the fusebox casing and can be released and prised free. All you would do in that case is get a spare female pin connector and fit this in the centre empty hole of the fiesta relay holder. Then this becomes your 5th timing wire that if fed up to the stalk unit.

next we do fitting and hopefully successful testing!!!

Technically you should disconnect the battery. I cheated and removed the fuse 16 supplying the wipers and left keys out ignition. Your choice what you do……

OK first you need to remove the steering coloumn upper and lower covers and the speedo surround until dash looks like this:



Then you simply swap over the old stalk with the new one by undoing the screw on top!!

At this stage test the stalk system and all should function except the intermittent setting.

Then remove 2 screws holding fusebox in and lower the fuse box.
The tall red relay is the intermittent relay and is the one we shall be replacing:


OK now you can take 2 routes, fit the adaptor I made earlier which is plug and play, or fiddle with the fuse box itself which is neater.

For the purpose of this guide ive gone for fitting the wire into the fuse box as its neater than using an adaptor.

OK remove the rear cover to the fusebox and losen any cable ties holding wires so you can gain access as needed to the relay holder wiring for the intermittent wipe.



then prise out the intermittent relay holder from above using a fine screwdriver blade to release the clips.


Now you have the necessary space to work thread the stalk end of the wire down the central hole until the connector for the relay is next to the relay holder.


with careful manipulation install the connector into the spare space in the relay holder. Remember to put it in the right way and use a fine screwdriver again to help you align it and fit it until it is securely clipped in position. From the side it should look like this:



and now reseat the relay holder and it should look like this:


Ive threaded the single wire into the loom then under the dash to the left hand side of dash as it was simpler than totally integrating it into the original loom. The wire should come out here:

and then you need to thread it around the steering column and attach the connector to the stalk thus completing the wiring:



At this stage reconnect battery and test intermittent, if alls well then great.

now you need to tidy up all the wiring, refit the fusebox and the column covers and you have now successfully fitted your variable intermittent wipe!!!

Once assembled it looks like this from the side:


and behind the wheel the stalk appears slightly longer than before:


I had it running and timed it so you know the rough times you get.

position times between wipes
1 4.5 sec
2 6.5 sec
3 10 sec
4 12 sec
5 14.5 sec
6 17 sec

In the end i went for wiring into fuse box as im keeping car.