Morris Minor Owners Club

Strange goings on with a couple of things on my 1956 series 2 wipers. The near side wiper won't wipe. I've taken the cover off the wheel housing to check the spindle gear is working and when the wiper is not resting on the windscreen it is working fine. When you put it back on the windscreen it trys to work but fails miserably and the rack is hardly moving the gear at all. The screen being wet or dry makes no difference. The gear on the spindle isn't particularly worn and is a good fit into the rack. Could this be as simple as needing a new wiper? The pressure applied by the n/s wiper itself does seem to be greater than the drivers side, but both have worked well until recently.
Other strange thing, maybe connected? The wiper motor is not fixed in its housing at all and wriggles around in its housing when the wipers are turned on. I've taken the housing out and found three round metal pads bolted onto the back plate which correspond with three rubber-type pads on the back surface of the wiper motor. There are no bolts anywhere on the motor to attach to the housing or anywhere that bolts could go through. Is the housing missing something that presses/holds the motor in place? Other than the holes which the metal pads are bolted through there are no others to fix anything. It all seems different to both the Haynes manual and the Autobooks manual that use the same illustration of the mechanism, so I'm wondering if this is an illustration from a later model and the earlier ones were just allowed to flap about!

Any suggestions greatly received...

Have you got the motor that's next to the engine in the bay, or inside the dash? I'll progress believing that it's in the engine bay for now, as that's what I have experience with.

I found, on reassembling my wiper system (on a '59 1000, but it's the same system, I believe), that the cable gets easily jammed in the teeth of the gears if not placed exactly, and it caused the symptoms you describe. Might be worth a check. Otherwise, take the motor off and test it on a bench to see if it's working well.

The motor should be secured by nuts that screw onto studs that are attached to the metal circles. Sounds like you're missing the studs! A photo of this would help, if you can take one. If in fact it's as I'm thinking, all you'll have to do is remove the metal pads and order a set of new ones (http://morrisminorspares.co.uk/shop/pro ... c04719e552) and do them up. It's tough to get them nice and tight, due to lack of space underneath, but can be done.

Thanks
The motor is under the dashboard, tucked away in the corner of the drivers side (r/h drive). The mounts you have kindly linked me to appear different to what I have. The rubber mounts on the body are solid with no holes through the centre of them.I'm beginning to wonder if the round metal plates bolted to the back plate of the housing are the original studs that have come away from the rubber mounts on the motor body - though the only way that they could have been fixed together I can think of is that they were glued, which doesn't seem very satisfactory. I might just do a search to see if there is any info on the pre-1956 motors to see if they are different in this way. I'm tempted just to superglue them all back together again and see what happens!
The fit of the spindle gear into the rack seems good, and as I said, when the wiper is lifed off the screen it works fine, swishing backwards and forwards merrily in mid air, its only when it is rested back on the screen it stops moving. BTW as its a series 2 it has the split screen and clap hands wipers. Whether this makes a difference I don't know. As the drivers side wiper is working well I haven't taken the wheel housing cover of that side to see what's going on.

Cheers, Paul

Ah, then I think what you want is this: http://morrisminorspares.co.uk/shop/pro ... 4cfbbfc25e Probably the motor is indeed flopping around when it turns, as it requires quite a lot of steadiness to be able to engage the wipers -- try and have someone hold it very still (if they can get their hands in there) while it runs to see if it makes a difference.

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The wiper motor sits in a bracket which is connected to the wiper body by three rubber pads fixed to a triangular plate screwed to the wiper motor. These pads frequently come unstuck and the plate with rubbers should be replaced.
If the left wiper is not working correctly then you need to check the rack clamps either side of the wheel box on the driver's side as any lost motion will be transfered. If the wiper is still not sweeping then check the rack clamp screws on the left side. When the wipers are running there should be no slack movment in the rack.
If still faulty remove wiper wheel and check condition of teeth and rack. If wheel teeth are worn then turn the wheel 180 deg. If rack is worn it will need replacing.
Check that the wiper arm is clamped tight to the spindle

Thanks both
I had started to work this out, having found the triangular plate arrangement yesterday and wondered how it then fitted to the motor body, so all the advice has helped get a good picture of it. Looks like I need to get the whole thing out to do a proper once-over and fit the new piece onto the motor. I don't think the gears or rack are overly worn, and have tried turning the n/s gear 180 deg already. Will investigate the o/s rack clamps. It's such a simple mechanism, can't be that difficult can it...
Will report back on progress

Remove steering wheel and glove boxes, remove 4 nuts and bolts holding wiper motor bracket taking care not to drop the nuts and bolts down the A post, disconnect wires and wiper arms, undo spindles and push into car then withdraw assembly through glove box space. You may have to remove central speedo for extra clearance

The rack can be turned over - to give it a second life!

Yeah, I'd thought that myself - would give another 56 yrs worth of happy wiping!

bmcecosse wrote:The rack can be turned over - to give it a second life!

The Series MM/II wiper rack consists of a wire spiralled around a central core wire. When the spiral wire wears it breaks and cannot be turned over. It is important to keep the wheel boxes well greased to minimise wear

Obviously if it gets that bad - nothing will save it! But assuming it's not broken - it should roll over ok.

The rack is a single spiral of wire and if that wears then there will be no use rotating it. The spilt screen wiper rack is also less robust than the M1000 rack.

Fitted the new motor bracket today and reassembled the rack and gearwheels, with lots of grease to lubricate the gears and the rack sleeve. After a few goes at getting the rack as straight as possible under the dashboard and with the aid of a cable tie tightened around the rack and heater conduit to the windscreen to stop it kinking it was aligned well enough for both wipers to swish merrily back and forth, clearing my jug of water poured onto the screen with power and efficiency

Thanks for the diagrams and advice. We are once again ready for rainy days out.

Paul

sudburypaul wrote:. We are once again ready for rainy days out.Paul

You should not have to wait long