sluggish wiper motors

[Rosie]

Les fixed my wiper motors!!!! Thank you so much Les!!!!!
I installed them, and find that they are sluggish. Not to compare them with anything on a new vehicle of course, but would expect them to go from one side of the windshield to the other. They will go a little more than half way. I have played around with positioning and have got them centered pretty well, but they do not cover much of the viewing area. They are also a bit slow. Could hardly expect them to wipe a wet snow away.
Any suggestions for giving a boost to 1966 independent wiper motors??
Thanks!!

[LaneRover]

Mine have different levels of sluggishness and also seem to 'warm' up and move across much more of the screen after a bit of use.

How long have yours been sitting?

Overall I would first check all of your connections and clean up any rust/dirt/crap that may be on the connections. It is amazing how much cleaning up the connections can help.

Brent

[greenmeanie]

As stated above check your connections and clean the motors. If you don't have one now get a multimeter because you will become familiar with automotive electrics. Look for as close to 12V at the motor as you can. There will be some feeder drop reducing the volts but it should not be excessive.

If you don't have 12 V then first check the alternator and battery output. If they are normal clean all the connections you can find for that circuit. Check the voltage at each connection. If that doesn't do it I'd suggest putting in a relay taking a feed directly from the battery although this doesn't appear to be something most people have to do.

Gregor

[graniterover]

They go faster when there is water on the windshield.

As for wiping snow..... good luck!

[I Leak Oil]

They usually slow down when the grease in the gearbox portion gets old and becomes hard. Clean the old grease out and put new grease in. The lack of range of motion is usually caused by wear in the slot in the bronze engagement sleeve.
Jason T.

[Rosie]

The connections are all new, as the vehicle has been rewired, so probably not a dirt/grim issue....

but this is intrequing......Jason, what is the bronze engagement sleeve? would I find that in the manual. I will look, but if you have any more info, I would appreciate.
The lack of range of motion is usually caused by wear in the slot in the bronze engagement sleeve.
Jason T.

[Andrew IIA]

The properly functioning wipers on my '63 are nearly useless.

RAIN-X is a series rover's best friend ! as well as AAA card, and a roll of paper towels :rolleyes:

Best regards, Andrew

[LaneRover]

Ditto on the Rain-X and in the winter a scraper - for inside. . .

[KingSlug]

Go here: http://vivalaant.wordpress.com/2007/01/24/series-rover-lucas-wiper-motor-refurbishment/?bcsi_scan_B391CC53DDB4F8CB=ytUQu6EB48Md3esSWsliIw EAAACTl8QA

I pretty much documented the whole rebuild of series wiper motors. Follow the directions and use a good grease and you should be fine.

Jared

[SafeAirOne]

Ditto on the Rain-X....

I definitely concur--Rain-X makes windshield wipers obsolete except in snow.

[daveb]

Howdy

I used rain-x a few times on my Series vehicles and I always found that although it did improve visibility in some situations, there were a few drawbacks. most of them more of a problem at night.

1. since the windscreen is nearly vertical, the beads of water don't just fly off like they do on a normal car. some do, but the others would just dance around without really going anywhere.

2. the light from cars behind me would reflect of the water beads and make them opaque, effectively preventing me from seeing anything in front of the screen.

There were others but those were the major complaints. Also I felt like the wipers worked better without the rain-x. With the rain-x there was streaking. Without it the wipers left a clear swath behind them. Although if you had no wipers at all then the rain-x was obviously an improvement.

I've refurbed a few sets of wiper motors and replaced the grease in them with "heavy duty" wheel bearing grease. That seems to work ok without melting and leaking too much. Mind you the motors do build up some heat on the bodies, curious if others have noticed that. That is both pre and post rebuild.

Lastly but not leastly (is that a real word?) the biggest improvements I have been able to make to the performance has been making sure the motor body is tightly assembled with loctite so as not to come loose or come apart and the addition of a ground strap from the body to the windscreen. That increased the speed considerably.

Somewhere I have a complete two speed single wiper motor set up but I haven't been able to bring myself to do that yet.

Oh, and I almost never use the passenger side motor. That's the spare...



I definitely concur--Rain-X makes windshield wipers obsolete except in snow.

[Rosie]

Thank you Jared for your link!
Rain x...I will check it out.
Thanks!

[greenmeanie]

Meh,
Just move to Phoenix. I'm lucky to use mine 10 times before the rubber rots off them.

[gudjeon]

I agree with daveb on the rain-x thing. I have not had good experience with it. I found my rebuilt wiper motors do get quite warm to the touch if running for an extended period. I have had them running one time driving 3 hrs through a snow storm. They worked fine, considering the technology they were made with. I have an uprated heater which makes my windshield steam when wet so this probably helps them out clearing snow.

[SafeAirOne]

I agree with daveb on the rain-x thing. I have not had good experience with it.

Interesting...The only problem I've ever had with it is driving through fog or mist, where the droplets on the windscreen were too tiny to form into drops large enough to get carried off by wind or by gravity. Otherwise it was great. Of course, you must re-apply the stuff every 3-4 weeks to keep it working properly.

[gudjeon]

Howdy Safeair,

I had put the Rain-x one time in my car. I used the windshield washer fluid that rain-x had put out. It had left a film in my windshield that would smear into a fine haze and would be blinding at night. I cleaned the windshield very well and it still did this. Even when the fluid was changed for the cheap blue stuff. The wipers gummed with the stuff and they chattered and smeared. I finally used a good strong ammonia to get rid of the film and put new wipers on to bring it back to "normal".

I am not slagging the stuff and I like how the rain streaked off at speed. As a personal thing, I would not use it again (gunshy, you could say).

[zayante]

I used Rain-x on my Alfa GTV-6 windshield, and it worked great. It did tend to mess up the wiper blades, though, causing either deterioration (the common belief on the Alfa listserve) or contamination of the wiper edge.

I agree about the effectiveness being related to windshield rake. Also road speed. It's great on the freeway on a properly raked windscreen.

[rovers2a]

can try this link http://www.roversnorth.com/store/t-technicalinfotipswiper.aspx

[StX_Rovers]

Our experience here has been that Rain-X works great, half the time I don't even bother with the wiper motor or just grab the parking handle and make a couple of quick swipes. I have never had the streaking problem. Remember you are supposed to buff the Rain X after it has dried to a haze. Even in the tropical sun it lasts at least a month.

As DaveB mentioned, I also found that a ground strap made a big difference (for the better) to the wiper motor's operation. Remember that they have a rubber boot all around them so there is really not much of a ground at all. Also make sure that the blade of the switch is making good contact, it might help to bend it up a little bit.