Fuse/relay panel

[Alex Rosser <lxrosser@photo.ugcs.caltech.edu>]

So, the process of sorting out the new car continues apace.

A spiffy new problem cropped up recently. Occasionally the windshield wipers
will refuse to stop running. The fail mode seems to be as follows: Have the
intermittents wipers on, and after a while, they'll start to "double"(instead
of one sweep across and park until the next cycle, they'll do two sweeps at
speed, then park). After a couple of trips like that, they'll flip into
non-intermittent mode, and turning off the wiper switch doesn't stop them. I
inadvertantly(while batting at the wiper stalk and swearing) that if the
swicth is in the "dead" space between the "fast" and "very fast" speeds on
the stalk, the wipers will stop, until the switch gets jarred and knocked
back out of the dead spot. Rebooting the car(turning it off and back on)
seemed to fix the problem once, on another occasion it didn't.

Now, I think I know what the problem is: I'm assuming that something is
sharing a common ground with the wiper relay, and that something is causing a
voltage drop at the ground, making the wiper relay think it's got power, and
sending it off into a wiping frenzy. When the switch is stuck in the dead
spot, it's interrupting the positive feed to the relay and breaking the
circuit. I'm hoping that if I find that ground point and clean it up(I'm
assuming that since I've also found a *huge* windshield leak pouring water
under the underdash area on the driver's side that I've probably got a rats
nest of electrical corrision problems waiting for me) things will work the
way they should.

So, the question: In an '86 4kcsq, is there a common grounding pooint for all
of the relays in the relay panel, and if so any advice for finding it? Also, 
I've pulled out the panel on the underside of the driver's side of the dash,
hoping to get access to the backside of the relay/fuse panel, and I've got to
ask: Are you kidding me? Can one unbolt that fuse/relay box somehow, and pull
it up to the side and get *decent* access to all of the underside
connections?

Thanks.

-Alex
 1971 Volvo 142E		1994 Volvo 944T
 1987 Porsche 911 Targa		1986 Audi 4000cs Quattro