Morris Minor Owners Club

Several years ago, my wiper rack stopped working.

It was then that I discovered that the securing nut on one wiper spindle simply would not come off. I ended up having to hasksaw the spindle off.

That's where the problems started.

I bought a series of wiper spindles secondhand from eBay, most of which simply didn't fit because the spindles were too long and kept catching on the bonnet whenever it was opened.

Eventually, I bought replacement spindles from ESM.

These seem to be the right size, as I can now open the bonnet.

However...

The new wiper arms sold by ESM (and others) as original TEX items don't seem to fit. They're too loose to properly engage with the serration on the spindles.

I have managed to find one arm to work on the drivers' side but none of the three passenger side arms I have tried (clap-hands wipers) do any more than flop around uselessly on the spindle.

A second new spindle from ESM produced exactly the same lack of success.

So...

Has anyone had similar problems with new TEX arms on original spindles? In other words, are the new wipers not manufactured accurately... Or, if the TEX arms do fit properly, are the new spindles just that fraction too small?

Ideally, I'd like original spindles from a scrap pre-63 car, which should hopefully fit but they seem quite hard to find, so I've resorted to (probably) Chinese-made replacements...

Advice / thoughts, anyone?

Try Richard Plant of Minor Parts of Oxford for a suitable second hand replacement wiper wheel box.

Sorry to ask but you are using the correct arms for a clap hand wiper car? They are different for split screen, later one-piece screen clap hands and latest parallel.


https://www.morrisminorspares.com/elect ... ls-p829759

Regarding the bonnet catching: my later car, parallel wipers, had a habit of just clipping one wiper arm on the bonnet when opening and closing it. The reason was down to the rubber gasket perishing under the bezel (which creates a leak onto the top of the glove box liners). Modern gaskets are about half the thickness of the originals so replacing the gasket didn't;'t work. Eventually I tracked down a NOS gasket and realised it was much thicker. Then I made my own gasket out of rubber sheet. Problem solved. Also look at bonnet hinge gaskets and bonnet alignment. A thicker bezel gasket means the spindle protrudes less. A broken or non original spacer on the inside of the scuttle will also upset the position of the spindle.

Stephen

I've messaged Richard and will hunt for an entire rack and spindles from a suitable donor.

I've got new gaskets etc on the spindles but might have to try thicker ones, to pull them back from the bonnet edge... it's otherwise pretty reasonably adjusted.

I have bought the correct arms and spindles according to ESM - they just don't seem to like each other. Unfortunately, new replacement parts aren't always the same as NOS or second-hand ones.

It rained this morning and I can now see that the single wiper that looked like it was working properly, only sweeps about 75deg, so it's clearly not working/gripping properly either.

Incidentally, I also bought my car in 1989. It was then a 2-door but it was converted in the early 90s...

Yes I was given my car in 1989. It's a genuine convertible. It was my first car at 17 and it survived me learning to drive on the poor thing.

I don't know about clap hands specifically because my car has parallel wipers but ESM new wheel boxes are not right and this has been an issue for years. I have posted photos of the differences. The modern wheel boxes give the wrong arc of sweep on the screen due to fact the gear wheel is a different size and has the wrong number of teeth. Don't worry about the rack if not worn out, it does not affect the sweep, they're all the same.

Stephen


Parallel wiper wheel boxes