Wiper switch circuit breaker and a jolt

Closer inspection revealed that the grinding was the wiper motor attempting to turn. But if I wiggle the wiper knob to the right place, the wipers will run strongly. Not sure if that means the wiper contacts are not quite lined up, and so not enough current is moving to the motor, or the motor has some kind of binding issue. Once they start moving they stay pretty strong and I don't see any physical contact of the wiper mechanism arms or pivots with other items.
Anyway, this would explain the breaker tripping and resetting . It might also explain a voltage build up that somehow got transferred to the parking lever. All I can think is that some of the foil backed insulation I added somehow connected between the wiper connecting arm and the top of the gear select/park assy. Which is scary, because electricity should not be able to move from the motor to the mechanism.
The other clue is that the rheostat seems to work, as my test lamp decreases in brightness as I turn the wiper knob, but I get no variable speed. Seems like the only power that moves the motor is in the black/blue connector to the motor.