Two electrical troubleshooting questions

[CDTJ]

My first question is much more urgent to me than the second.

Here's the deal; today, I finished a vac delete on my 86 720 z24i (FI). I took every vac line out, plugged the EGR, put a filter on the fuel line evap, etc. I don't remember fooling with any cords. But when I go to start my car now, my wipers will automatically turn on, even though the switch is off. It will sometimes stop, maybe for a minute, but not long. It is very erratic. The other settings do work as they should, including intermittent, and high. Just off seems to now mean random. Drove with it today for about 20 minutes, and it started to drive me absolutely bat-s***. What could cause it?
My two thoughts are the switch handle, and the motor. Anything else? And maybe a sign of the motor going funky is that the wipers have been very weak since I got it.

Second, temperature affects everything electrical. When it's below freezing, my lights are slower (sometimes up to 2 or 3 mins after I turn on), wipers are mega slow (slower than normal), and anything electrical except my toggle switches for lights and cb takes time. Could this be caused by exposed, uninsulated wires? It's very odd. In the warm weather of the past few days, my lights have been much quicker, coming on in about 2 seconds. Rather confused.

Thanks for any advice!

CDTJ

[Smyrna720]

You have corrosion somewhere. This will cause 2 things. High resistance and shorts. Your high resistance is causing your wipers and headlights to act very slow, and somewhere you're shorting to power another accessory, wipers in your case. There are only a handful of places in your truck you need to be looking. The fuze box is the obvious choice, as well as the multifunction switch. I would start with the multifunction switch. Also, any connections along the way to the main harness that include a mess of wires to components that are malfunctioning is something to look at too.

My money is either on the switch or a connection on the column.

On mine, if I wasn't careful, when I would turn the turn signal on to turn left, 3 of the headlights would come on. Unfortunately I don't know these trucks well enough yet to point you in any specific direction. I can only tell you what I've found on mine.

[flinterman2000]

You have corrosion somewhere. This will cause 2 things. High resistance and shorts. Your high resistance is causing your wipers and headlights to act very slow, and somewhere you're shorting to power another accessory, wipers in your case. There are only a handful of places in your truck you need to be looking. The fuze box is the obvious choice, as well as the multifunction switch. I would start with the multifunction switch. Also, any connections along the way to the main harness that include a mess of wires to components that are malfunctioning is something to look at too.

My money is either on the switch or a connection on the column.

On mine, if I wasn't careful, when I would turn the turn signal on to turn left, 3 of the headlights would come on. Unfortunately I don't know these trucks well enough yet to point you in any specific direction. I can only tell you what I've found on mine.

What he said. The multifunction switch is usually the culprit. As for the slow electrical, clean and WD40 the connectors - yeah all. Take your time, its your truck.