Thread: Windscreen Wiper Woes

JoJo - I think thats part of the car's entertainment system (watching wiper strokes on long wet trips)

I just rectified a similar problem with my Defender.

The first thing to check is the tightness of the wiper spindles.

Mine were tight,so I removed the wiper motor from its retaining bracket,then undid the nut that holds the wiper tube to the motor,disconnected the wiring from the wiper motor,which allowed me to take out the wiper motor and the wiper cable as one unit.NOTE: before I removed the cable I put a mark on the wiper spindles at the 12 o'clock position.
While I had the wiper motor and cable out,I checked that there wasn't any noticeable wear in the cable,I then gave it a liberal coat of grease.
What comes next is important:- I rotated both the wiper spindles so that my mars were now at the 6 o'clock position or 180 deg. from where they were when I took it apart.
I then reinserted the cable back into the wiper tube and then made sure that the spindles remained with the marks at the 6 o'clock position after the cable had passed the spindle location.Took me a couple of goes and just removing the cable a small amount till I got it all lined up.When the cable was all the way in and the marks were at the 6o'clock position,it was just a matter of doing up the nut from the tube to the motor and then fit the clamp over the motor and fit the wiring.I then tried the wipers before fitting the wiper arms,just to make sure everything worked.After confirming that all was working,I fitted the wiper arm back on the spindles,in their normal starting position,then tried the wipers.Everything was back to like new.all in all the job probably took me about 20 minutes,and that included running around looking for some liquid paper to mark the spindles with.Don't know why I put this off for so long and put up with crappy wipers.
What all this does is just turns the wiper boxes that get wear in them,over to another position where the teeth are not worn.
You could replace the wiper boxes,but that takes a lot longer to do.

Regards

Wayne

Sounds like your wheelboxes are stuffed....but no problem ......just swap the left to the right etc.... so that the cable is on the opposite side to where it was in its original position...now that is as clear as mud...Hey!

Wheelbox/cable wear is very common on set ups like this & is easy to sort out by simply rotating the cable.

Remove the arms & mark one spindle so you can check when it's rotated 180deg. Also mark which side of the cable was fitted into the wiper motor as you eventually want the cable rotated 180deg too.

The hardest part is getting to the wiper motor on some cars. The cars I do this on (Morris Minors) are easy.

Once the cable is out of the motor, spin it around until the wheelbox has gone 180deg then make sure the cable itself is also 180deg from it's original position. Then you have the wheelbox gears & cable running on the brand new sections .

I have the same problem on the SIII but I'd like to talk about the 101 wipers.
They are slow and stop about half way. I thought the cable might need a bit of a lube. I pulled the wiper arms off, disconnected the wiper motor and gave it a good tug (The wiper motor. Get your minds out of the gutter). It wouldn't dislodge. I need to know how to remove it.
Any suggestions? (be nice)

regards
Mick

Did you disconnect the cable from the wiper motor? There's a tube in which the cable runs. This is secured to the wiper motor & the wheel boxes. If you don't disconnect this, you'll be trying to pull out the wheelboxes from the body !!


If you have disconnected the cable from the motor, I assume the 101 is a similar set up to the Defender, in which case the cable might be gunked up with dried out grease.

Have you tried unscrewing the cable? It'll take quite a few turns to get it out but once you get past the first wheelbox, it might pull out then. If not, keep winding.

Digging up an old thread here - I have the same issue. Can I get to the wiper motor without removing the aircon panel on a 300tdi?

I dont think so, on modells with aircon it's a nightmare