Wipers Parking in the wrong place!

[StanleyMinor]

Help please - I recently bought a 1968 1098cc Minor and have problems with the wipers, ie they automatically park pointing up rather than resting at the base of the windscreen. Even changing the wiper motor for a known correct version for the engine size and year hasn't made any difference. Any advice or anyone who has come across this before, your help would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Russ.

[Alec]

Hello Russ,

my normal fix is to reposition the arms on the splines, but that only works if the sweep is correct. Do your wipers go down to the base of the screen when they are running or do they oversweep and go past the windscreen pillar? If the latter then the arms are on too far to the right on the spindles. If the former then the park position on the motor needs adjusting. (Odd that the second motor did the same!)
Adjustment of the park position is done by loosening the screws around the domed cover on the wiper motor (The cover with a wire attached to it) and rotate it and check where the arms stop. Do this adjustment with your arms folded up out of the way or remove them so that they do not sweep onto the bonnet as you adjust.

Alec

[Vernon]

Do this adjustment with your arms folded up out of the way or remove them

This could make things very difficult.

[rayofleamington]

my normal fix is to reposition the arms on the splines

If they do sweep to the bottom of the screen, but park in a different place then doing this will merely run the wipers into the bodywork making a real mess.

To change 'where the wipers sweep', repostion the arms on the spindles - taking care that they don't hit the bodywork under the screen.

To change the park position (i.e. just to change when they stop moving) you need to rotate the round cap in the top of the wiper motor. To do that you need to loosen the screws holding the plate on the top of the motor mechanism. Mark the starting position with a magic marker so that you know where you started and rotat the cap one way or the other until they stop correctly.
The round cap has a contact disk inside it that keeps power running to the motor when the dashboard-switch is off. The disk has a cut-out so that when the mechanism reaches a certain place, the motor will not carry on unless the dashboard-switch is on.

[Alec]

Hello Ray,

we have been through this before! (Hence the qualifying part of my first sentence)

As I said my usual fix assumes the park position being correct and as two motors do the same it seems likely that they are correct. It is something that is rarely disturbed unless the motor has been dismantled. Lifting the arms up to a vertical position allows safe and easy adjustment. I know that not all arms will lock up in this position so remove them and mark the spindle.

Alec

[StanleyMinor]

Thanks for all your advice ... have just loosened the cover on the wiper motor, turned the dish with the wire through approx 180 degrees and thw wipers are now parking where they should. Seems very simple now, but baffled me as to what it was. Thankyou all.

[rayofleamington]

we have been through this before! (Hence the qualifying part of my first sentence)

Hi Alec - yes I remember it too ;-)
I must confess that I missed the second part of your post, and otherwise wouldn't have posted the same info Doh!

Anway - the important bit is that Stanley's wipers now park at the bottom.
The fact that they were 180° out on both motors is really wierd. The only potential I can think of is that the wheel boxes on the ends of the wiper spindles are built backwards (if that is possible)
Even if the motor turned the wrong way, it only pushes and pulls the cable so either both motors had an identical error in the setting point or there is something odd about the wheel boxes!

[Alec]

Hello Ray,

mm, maybe they can be installed 'upside down', would that give this effect?

Alec

[rayofleamington]

mm, maybe they can be installed 'upside down', would that give this effect?

that's kind of what I meant by built backwards, so yes - maybe it is possible

[paulk]

Have just realised that my wipers dont self park. I must have always turned them off at the bottom of the stroke.

Turns out the inside contacts are completly shot.

HO hum I hope this won't affect the MOT

[bigginger]

It will - won't it?

[StanleyMinor]

Have only just got back into Minors after a few years without one. This Minor has had a few bits bodged and I've sorted them all now, the wipers being the last. The lethal mix of 1 crossply and 1 radial on the front was also sorted yesterday with a good set of 4 new radials. Feels a lot better on the road now! Great to be driving and working on such a simple car again.

[rayofleamington]

HO hum I hope this won't affect the MOT

unlikely!
You can always get the cap and contact arm out of a scrap motor - Normally they just need a clean.

[bigginger]

I thought 'self parking out of line of driver's vision' WAS part of it?

[Packedup]

I'm sure the wipers don't need to self park for the test, they just need to work.

Are rebuild kits available for the wiper motors? If not, gives me even more reason not to chuck the pile of seized or part dismantled ones... I like hoarding "it'll come in useful" stuff

[bigginger]

Let's hope so - I probably read that on a site about the SVA or something.

[rayofleamington]

I expect that if the wipers did park half way up tyhe screen it should be a failure point, but not neccessarily the same thing as wipers that don't automatically park...

[bigginger]

That's probably it.
a

[Packedup]

And an SVA is somewhat more stringent than an MOT.. Hence my argument last year when someone said the pickup would need an SVA to get back on the road...

Can't see anything at http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_820.htm about the wipers needing to self park