January 2015. A wipers problem and a Fix.

Using the car just before Christmas and I found the wipers and washers were not working. Everything else on the car was fine, even the headlights still came up when requested - not quite together, but that is being fussy.
The symptoms steered me towards the column switch as this is the common factor and it didn't take long to spot the problem.

The wires from the switch were broken under the column.  It also didn't take me long to see why.
I had carefully cable tied the hanging wires up under the dash but where I anchored them was just too close to the top clamp of the column. The result was that as the column turned the bolt chopped the wires off!  Its a proper beginners mistake that I should not have made.

You can see where it happened in the picture above.

Its all fixed now as I just fitted a spare switch but did I ever feel like a right plonker!!

Note:-
Whilst I was swapping the switches over a small brass cylinder and spring flew out causing a brief moment of panic.  Luckily I found it all on the floor but getting the parts back in took a lot of patence with numerous failures. Turns out the screws that hold the switch to the metal frame also hold the switch together so take care if you are working on them.