99 Expy EB 4 x 4 Wiper probs... help please

[InSpirit]

I bought my Expy in April of this year... used... it's a 99 and I love it... it's a Ford, how can I not love it.. but it does come with a few minor problems that irratate me.
First is the wipers... stupid things come on all by themselves. At first it would just swipe across 5 or so times, then stop. Then it got to where it would kick on full speed once in awhile. Then it got to where every time you started the crazy thing the wipers would come on full force and nothing you did short of pulling their fuse would stop them!
Now, to control this I have had to pull the fuse. When it rains, I have to stop, and put the fuse in. As long as I don't turn the truck off, or put the wipers on full force, I can turn them back off, but if I turn it off, when I restart it the wipers go insane on me. If I turn them on full force, they won't turn back off lest I jerk out the fuse. The rear wiper doesn't do that.
This becomes a huge problem when you hit a giant water hole and fling water (on my road it's muddy water) up on your windshield and you have NO way of seeing until you stop and put in the fuse. (now I carry a small squeegie with me)
The next problem I have is the gas milage. I got my truck in April and it was rolling 15.8 mpg.... now, a month ago it was down to 13.8, and after changing the air filter it went back up to 14. What's the deal ?
And then there's my CD changer... it's in the console, it won't play a recorded cd. And it skips like crazy when you're on smooth road. Not all the time, but it does throw it's fits. I have a lasar lens cleaner in slot 6 and every time my cd's cycle through, it gets cleaned. Stupid thing is vertical though, so any debris it removes falls down into the changer anyway so what's the point ?

[theman100]

first the wipers. you might have two things going on,1. the multi-function switch is bad, also you need to pull your fuse box out and see if any terminals look green or like water has been in there. has been many winshields leaking and the water goes in to your fuse box/gem module. (GEM) generic electronic module,controls many things,wipers is one of them. good luck

ps. get rid of the changer,JUNK.....