Wiper motors have a homing switch. Usually located to keep motor running until Home is achieved, then discharge the magnetic field inside motor so that motor stops instantly. Intermittent wipers disconnect this swtich and pulse motor just enough so that this switch will keep motor running until motor gets back to homing position.

So which is it? Switch inside motor, control (or relay module) that activates motor even when switch is in home positions, or wires (connectors) between. Wiring schmatic is important and easily available. Could be any one of these. Quick use of a meter will identify where the 'home switch' and associated wire is broken.

did you use google to find that out by any chance, or had you some experience with it? what do you do for a living, tw? i promise i won't make fun of you.

Back in the sixties and before I got an engineering degree, I once built things. Replaced the ignition with an electronic ignition. (Concept of points and condensor drove me crazy for the longest time until I finally discovered that points were only a switch. Why didn't they say so in all those books and shop manuals?) Built two different types of buglar alarms (one that would stop working when temperature dropped below 36 degrees). And built intermittent wipers. All these things were not offered as factory options back then. I could not understand why since I was even doing it and the design was not that expensive.

That wiper homing switch was a real dog (as I remember). Solved the problem by spiking the motor with tens of amps applied very quickly. That was enough to get the motor off its (shorted to ground) home position.

I'll bet a six-pack that tw had or has a subscription to Popular Mechanics.

Very cool stuff, tw.

Electricity baffles the hell out of me.

Popular Electronics - yes. Popular Science. Yes. But I disliked Popular Mechanics. All that stuff hyped in the spirit world or in Sci-Fi; few articles in Popular Mechanics based upon existing or realistic products. I never liked myths and lies.