Morris Minor Owners Club

Will I notice a difference if I swap a single 27 tooth wiper wheelbox with one with 32 teeth bearing in mind that a wiper cycle would only give 84% of the sweep of the other?

How far around does the cog go anyway as I've read where some people swap around the wheelbox by 180 degrees due to wear?

I wanted to replace just one of the wiper wheelboxes so I ordered one from my usual southern based supplier. I actually rang them 1st as a result of reading on a web site of another supplier about their wheelboxes having 32 teeth instead of 27. He said they weren't aware of any difference and had no reports of any problems. As they also restore Minors I trusted them and went ahead and ordered one. Of course the new wheelbox has 32 external teeth on a cog whereas the original ones have 27 internal teeth of the cog. So the replacement part, IMHO is of inferior quality to that of the original part (as usual) as the internal cog will be more in contact with the drive cable.

The original problem was that after a repairer replaced the wiper arms, the bonnet caught on the wiper arms when opened: however on investigation and in order to pack out the wiperbox spacer to obtain the required clearance I found that the threads on the bit surrounding the spindle were knackered (puller used in the past?) and I could not dissemble the same as the embellisher was also seized on fast which meant a hacksaw job.

Any advise would be gratefully received.

PS my son thought above swapping over the cogs, but we cannot pull off the cog on the original wheelbox.

So I was right (for a change): putting the new wheelbox on the driver's side this afternoon confirmed that the windscreen at the far RHS does not get cleared of water!

It must be that you need to order two such wheelboxes and a cog for the wiper motor (or replace the motor) to allow the wiper on a 32 tooth wheelbox to move in a larger arc: this was not explained to me by the supplier.

I'm now going to get a second hand one off an on-line auction site and at the same time have some new spaces printed off on a 3D printer for the same.

I think the lesson learnt is, if at all possible, buy second hand parts and clean them up rather than purchase new so called compatible replacements.

Rant over!