97 Rear wiper question

I just bought a 97 Quest. The rear wiper doesn't work. The previous owner told me that she removed the fuse because it would come on by itself. Has anybody ever heard of this problem? And what will it take to fix it? Update 5/28/10 I inserted the fuse and sure enough the rear wiper would come on. Not back and forth, back and forth but rather back and forth, delay, then back and forth, delay. It was as if it was on a timed delay switch. Any ideas????
Thanks

Yahoo, it was the switch. I had nightmares about trying to find a barewire.

Seems to me I have read someting about this somewhere but cannot find it. The rear wipers do have a timed relay on it for I believe every 15 seconds. I would check for a bad rear wiper switch to start with. If you go to the Mercury Villager forum on the top of Villager main page there is a thread for the online factory service manual which may be of help to you.

The circuit board may also have a problem with it. Circuit board is located in the rear left hand cup holder area, you need to remove LH panel to access. ANother possiblility is a bare wire touching the ground wire giving a completed power circuit causing the wiper to operate. You may want to check where the wires travel in the tailgate area ( from body to tailgate).