Slow Wipers

[Super Josh 4]

Its not a dodgy earth to the motor is it?

 

That's one of the things that I'll be checking on mine anyway. Assume they are connected to the earth blocks by the headlights?

 

 

 

Josh

[GLPoomobile 958]

Need to do it soon to beat GlPoo Watch this space.

Josh

 

 

Mine's still sat under my desk at work. Too lazy to take it home so far!

[Atari Boy 11]

Sorry for hijack but I only have one speed on my wipers regardless of which position I put the wiper stalk in, slow or fast. Do I need to replace the resistor or something else? I have grease all the bits already.

[skeggyrik 3]

And the result is.............

[Chris_Mi 6]

The 5 months suspense is killing me

Did the 106 motor fit??

[Super Josh 4]

The 5 months suspense is killing me

Did the 106 motor fit??

 

Yep Gave it a clean up as per M@tt's guide and it's 'kin brill. Works just like a modern car Highly recommended, I'll see if I can post up a video of it when it's raining or something.

 

 

 

Josh

[GLPoomobile 958]

Mine is due to go on now as I need to investigate why my drivers side wiper arm sweeps off the egde of the screen, so I figured I'd finally fit my motor while I'm at it.

 

Bastard bolt that holds the motor down wouldn't come out though I've had trouble with these before due to the crappy captive nut on them. Indeed, this one wasn't quite so captive, but I got around that. But half way out the thread must have stripped as it's going no further. f***ing stupid thing. Why do these simple jobs alway get foiled by ONE frigging bolt?

 

Anyway, I've started to drill the head off the bolt, but I need a bigger bit. Will get a 10mm bit tomorrow and hopefully get the frigger off.

Edited September 24, 2008 by GLPoomobile

[Chris_Mi 6]

Mine is due to go on now as I need to investigate why my drivers side wiper arm sweeps off the egde of the screen, so I figured I'd finally fit my motor while I'm at it.

 

Bastard bolt that holds the motor down wouldn't come out though I've had trouble with these before due to the crappy captive nut on them. Indeed, this one wasn't quite so captive, but I got around that. But half way out the thread must have stripped as it's going no further. f***ing stupid thing. Why do these simple jobs alway get foiled by ONE frigging bolt?

 

Anyway, I've started to drill the head off the bolt, but I need a bigger bit. Will get a 10mm bit tomorrow and hopefully get the frigger off.

 

Mine was doing the same (wiper not bolt!)

 

I thought it would be a simple case of adjusting the wiper splines, but this just meant the wiper stopped further up the windscreen partially blocking my view. What I actually found upon taking the motor off was that the spline of the wiper linkage which connects to the spline under the motor, was worn, and had been slipping slightly meaning that over time the linkage adjustment had moved causing the wipers to be wrong (I think ).

 

Hopefully some locktight and extra tight nut and washer should hold it. After several refitting and removing several times I recon it is useful after removing the motor to use a marker to indicate on the motor spline and the motor casing where the wiper sits in the 'off' position, before undoing the motor spline nut. After several attempts I finally figured out that when I undid the motor spine nut the motor spline rotated slightly, and similarly when refitting, causing the wiper linkage to be all skew when refitted when the ignition was turn on (because the motor automatically rotated to its starting position).

 

Glad to say that the wipers now work as they should. However, after a quick stint on the M65, I still have the problem that the wipers still 'slip' up the screen blowing the radio fuse (3?). Mmmmmm

 

Any ideas?

[platty 1]

I still have the problem that the wipers still 'slip' up the screen blowing the radio fuse (3?). Mmmmmm

Don't you just love these cars.

Motor is drawing too much current fighting against the airflow over the screen?

 

Not a real 'solution', but rain X works a treat at motorway speeds.

[Chris_Mi 6]

Don't you just love these cars.

Motor is drawing too much current fighting against the airflow over the screen?

 

Not a real 'solution', but rain X works a treat at motorway speeds.

 

This happens though when the wipers are off . Its like the air resistance at speed is pushing the motor against its will (as you said) but while the wipers are actually turned off.

Would this cause the motor to draw too much current?

Edited September 25, 2008 by Chris_Mi

[GLPoomobile 958]

Chris Mi - just going through what you have said in my mind (trying to mentally picture it) and I don't think that marking the motor splines etc is necessary. Yes, the motor stops in one position, but no matter where the motor stops, and therefore where the arm connected to it stops, you can still adjust the orientation of the wiper arms on the screen by loosening their retaining nuts and moving the arms, before tightening them down again. I think I know why my wiper was sweeping off the screen, but I'll get to that in a moment.

 

Right, having just spent £6 and something on a 12.5mm drill bit from a local store, I went out tonight and drilled that wee f***er right to hell Typically for me (I always miss the simplest solution), I managed to make things more complicated for myself, as with the head drilled off I was left with the shank sticking through the hole. I ended up having to jam a spanner in behind the bracket to hold the (non)captive nut and use mole grips to twist the shank out, which took about 30 minutes of pissing about. Had I jammed the spanner in in the first place, I wouldn't have even had to drill the c*nt, and could have saved a lot of time and £6 odd. Curse this slow brain of mine . Anyway, it's out now.

 

Back to the arm problem. I didn't notice a problem when I viewed the car as I only gave the wipers a quick sweep on each setting and they worked. It wasn't until I had a motorway journey in the pishing rain that my attention was drawn to a strange flappy thudding noise. I then realised that the drivers side arm was sweeping off the edge of the screen (the additional force caused by traveling at speed had caused the arm to sweep much further over than was noticeable when stationary). Eventually the arm ended up getting caught on the A pillar and got all fooked up.

 

In my case there was no 'slack' in the arm so it was not a case of wear in the splines on the spindle letting the arm move a little bit extra. My 2 initial thoughts were that I either had 309 arms (thought they were longer, but since found that to not be the case) or that some pillock had been playing silly buggers with the linkage under the scuttle panel.

 

Now that I've got the whole lot out to look at in detail, there was nothing initially that looked amiss. Nothing to indicate any shenanigans had gone on. Both linkage arms are the same length, nothing bent etc. I had already roughly compared the spindle bracket lengths (the rectangular thin length of metal that has a balljoint on one end and the spindle on t'other) and both appeared the same. However, upon closer inspection, I see that the spindle brackets are ever so slightly unequal. A cursory glance shows them to be about 1mm different in length BUT the difference in them from balljoint to spindle is actually about 3mm. I think this is where the problem lies (having made a DIY single wiper conversion in the past I know that by shortening the spindle bracket you increase the angle of sweep, and every mm reduction equals a fair few degrees increase in sweep). So I suspect that somebody has had the whole assembly out in the past (hence the stripped thread on the wiper retaining bolt), and has put the spindles on back to front - it doesn't matter if the passenger side sweeps over a slightly greater angle than the drivers side.

 

The spindles themselves obviously need some attention anyway due to rust inhibiting free movement. So I've stripped them apart and the whole lot is now in a tub of vinegar to break the rust down, but one of them is pretty bad and will no doubt need some sanding. Should have the whole lot back together with copious amounts of grease tomorrow night, and everything back in the car. Hopefully I will have a nice smooth, fast wiper action that remains on the screen

 

 

EDIT: f*** me, I really do type far too much old keek, don't I?

Edited September 25, 2008 by GLPoomobile

[welshpug 1,626]

Spot on Mr GLPoo!

[Chris_Mi 6]

Chris Mi - just going through what you have said in my mind (trying to mentally picture it) and I don't think that marking the motor splines etc is necessary. Yes, the motor stops in one position, but no matter where the motor stops, and therefore where the arm connected to it stops, you can still adjust the orientation of the wiper arms on the screen by loosening their retaining nuts and moving the arms, before tightening them down again. I think I know why my wiper was sweeping off the screen, but I'll get to that in a moment.

 

Aaah - thats what I thought .

 

But if you picture the motor from the top, imagine the motor spline protruding out the top, the motor spline rotates a full 360 deg clockwise from its 'off' position (anticlockwise if looking from underneath!!). With the motor attached to the car, and imagining the motor spline from the top is a clock, and wiper linkage bolted onto it is a clock hand, my wiper linkages were set at 6'oclock in the 'off' position. At 6 O'clock, the motor, when turned on still pushed the wiper linkages towards the offside (left) (looking from front of the car) between 6'oclcok and 9'oclock -causing wiper blades to go down 1/2 a sweep. Between 9o'clock and 3o'clock, the motor spline pushes the linkages towards the nearside (right) - causing the wipers blades to up the screen. Ad infinatum.

Therefore, with my motor 'off', there was still movement in the linkages both left and right when the wipers were turned 'on', ie. down and then up from the resting position. Methinks wipers should only move up from the resting position, then back down to it, not past it .

As you suggested, without adjusting the motor spline and linkage, the only way to adjust the wipers would be to adjust the wiper arms on their individual splines. But, doing that without moving the wiper motor spline meant that the wiper blades had to be positioned in the centre of my windscreen in the 'off' position, as they went down from 'off' and then back up - not good for driving !!!!

 

Therefore, to fix, I had to make sure that in the 'off' position the linkages were either at 3o'clock in the 'off' position (ie maximum movement towards offside) resulting in the blades being at their maximum downsweep position when 'off'. Fine adjustment can then be made with the wiper splines to suit.

 

Good luck with the refurb

Edited September 26, 2008 by Chris_Mi

[GLPoomobile 958]

Sorry Chris, you're absolutely right! I remember when I did my single wiper conversion, I had to adjust the position of the primary arm (bracket bolted to motor spindle) whilst parked, to change where I wanted the wiper to park. And I remember it being a fiddle, as like you said, you get it in to position but when you tighten the bolt you inevitably move the motor!

[jackherer 543]

it doesn't matter if the passenger side sweeps over a slightly greater angle than the drivers side.

 

You're right, it doesn't matter, in fact I think the passenger side is supposed to sweep further by design.

[GLPoomobile 958]

If I can upload the pics, I'll show you that under the rust, the spindle brackets are actually stamped with the length measurement. So you know easily which should be on which side (shorter on the passenger side).

 

Got it all back together. Motor works. Sweep issue is totally cured. Only niggle is a slight clonk from inside the motor every time it gets to a certain point of it's rotation. After my MOT is out of the way I'll take it out again and see if I can find the problem in the motor. After the hassle of getting the scuttle panel back under the windscreen seal (f***ing hate that job), it'll probably be another year down the line though But I do need to drill out both snapped bonnet hinge bolts too, so I have some additional motivation to look in to it sooner rather than later.

[GLPoomobile 958]

Here you go.....

 

Old bits (new 106 motor, less mouting plate, shown on the right of pic).

 

Rusty spindles, stripped out of the plastic brackets

 

Slightly cleaner spindles (the top one is still badly pitted as it was far rustier)

 

Size stamps

 

One thing I noticed, is that when you remove the spindles from the plastic brackets (a C shaped clip holds them at the top of the spindle), there is a little rubber O ring that is recessed in to the top of the plastic bracket. This is obviously to stop moisture finding it's way inside and corroding the spindle. I didn't note which was which, but found one of my 2 was pretty thin whereas the other was still quite plump. I'm guessing the thin one came off the more corroded spindle.

Edited September 27, 2008 by GLPoomobile

[Chris_Mi 6]

I'll show you that under the rust, the spindle brackets are actually stamped with the length measurement. So you know easily which should be on which side (shorter on the passenger side).

 

Definately couldn't see them on mine. Too much grime