Is lubricating a wiper rack in situ possible?

[jagnut66]

Hi,
As per this posts title, I was just wondering if lubricating a wiper rack in situ is possible?
They work but have been sat for a few years, inactive and without power.
Thanks and best wishes,
Mike.

[svenedin]

It depends what you mean by "in situ". You can withdraw the rack to clean off old grease and apply fresh. This also allows you to check if the wheel box spindles are seized and you can run the motor with no load on it to test that. Messy job.

Stephen

[jagnut66]

Thanks Stephen,
They do work at present but they seem a little slow, though that may just be the dry screen, when I wash it off I'll test them again.
They haven't had power for a few years, so may just need some activity to free them up a bit.
If not, time for some mess.....
Best wishes,
Mike.

[svenedin]

Thanks Stephen,
They do work at present but they seem a little slow, though that may just be the dry screen, when I wash it off I'll test them again.
They haven't had power for a few years, so may just need some activity to free them up a bit.
If not, time for some mess.....
Best wishes,
Mike.

The wiper motor is not strong enough to cope with a dry screen so it isn't a fair test. Try with a wet screen.

When my wiper system was overdue an overhaul, the wiper motor would overheat when used for more than 10 minutes or so. This was caused by excessive friction in the system.

Stephen

[Mervin]

It's something I keep meaning to do. All that I have done during my ownership is cleaned the old grease from the motor "gearbox" and add new.
Before removing the coverplate I marked the relative position self parking adjustment.

[svenedin]

It's something I keep meaning to do. All that I have done during my ownership is cleaned the old grease from the motor "gearbox" and add new.
Before removing the coverplate I marked the relative position self parking adjustment.

I went the whole way and stripped everything down. This is a lot of work. Both gloveboxes out, wiper wheel boxes off, all of the Bundy tubing taken out and cleaned out, wiper motor stripped down. I found a partially seized wiper wheel box which I could not improve and replaced with a good second hand part, lots of old hardened grease and seriously worn wiper motor carbon brushes. All works as it should now but performance is always going to be quite poor by modern standards. The use of Rain-X is helpful.

Stephen