Urgent wiper motor help!

So…..

The saga continues….the weather has taken a turn for the better and I’ve got my other car in use until Saturday when the insurance runs out and I would rather fix my wiper than have to reinsure the other car temporarily. I’m looking to sell the car to get rid of it to focus on the A2.

This gives me a few days grace if any of you wish to help me temporarily fix the wiper until I can afford to put another motor on which is in the car.

The earth has been attached, but not sure it’s right.

The only snag I have is my working hours. 2.30pm to midnight. Hence me posting this at stupid o’clock! 😂 I’m usually up around 10.30am and available till 2pm before I need to head to work.

I appreciate the window is small, but there is now 3 days hopefully to resolve this! Any help will be appreciated and I reiterate, I will not drive anywhere in case of any changes in the weather and not to endanger other drivers as well as myself. 🙂

Kind regards
 
I used to cycle to work. It's much better for you and the environment. Granted, it was only a couple of miles from Shawlands to Glasgow city centre. Cycling was great, it punctuated the beginning and the end of each working day and gave time me to reflect.
There's a work around for most scenarios.
Good luck with your repair, and stick at it you'll get there.

All the best,
:)👍

EDIT
I've tried to find you some diagrams of the wiper assembly but nothing so far. I think I may have an old wiper motor under the floor.

Edit II
IMG_20240925_093440.jpg

IMG_20240925_093452.jpg


IMG_20240925_093331.jpg
IMG_20240925_093316.jpg



IMG_20240925_094109.jpg
IMG_20240925_093929.jpg



EDIT III
IMG_20240925_093452.jpg


EDIT IV

If swapping the wiper motor and mechanism removing the engine air intake trunking and the cabin fresh air duct would give better access.

A

Thread 'Disconnect cowl panel grille / fresh air duct without removing wiper and washer jets. it’s vital to remove fresh air duct to get access to back side'

Disconnect cowl panel grille / fresh air duct without removing wiper and washer jets.

it’s vital to remove fresh air duct to get access to back side of the engine and access EGR/ turbo / intake manifold and exhaust etc. according to workshop manuals its need to remove wiper and washer jets, however its very easily to remove fresh air duct without removing wiper and water pipes.
a2-2681.png

Pull off rubber seal on cowl panel grille from left-hand side until the wiper motor


Lift the plastic cowl panel cover
IMG_9243.JPG


there is 2 Torx screws under the plastic (same screw...
  • Wow
  • Like
 
Last edited:
LTUhura said:
So…..

The saga continues….the weather has taken a turn for the better and I’ve got my other car in use until Saturday when the insurance runs out and I would rather fix my wiper than have to reinsure the other car temporarily. I’m looking to sell the car to get rid of it to focus on the A2.

This gives me a few days grace if any of you wish to help me temporarily fix the wiper until I can afford to put another motor on which is in the car.

The earth has been attached, but not sure it’s right.

The only snag I have is my working hours. 2.30pm to midnight. Hence me posting this at stupid o’clock! 😂 I’m usually up around 10.30am and available till 2pm before I need to head to work.

I appreciate the window is small, but there is now 3 days hopefully to resolve this! Any help will be appreciated and I reiterate, I will not drive anywhere in case of any changes in the weather and not to endanger other drivers as well as myself. 🙂

Kind regards
Click to expand...
What exactly is wrong with your wiper, how is it behaving?

The motor is fairly simple, it just spins one full rotation for every sweep of the blade, and that rotational motion is transferred into the sweeping motion by a mechanical linkage. It’s a nice simple mechanism, and mostly done by mechanical means rather than electronic control.

The a2 mechanism is roughly the same as this gif:
1727253337358.gif


If the motor is spinning correctly, then the wiper should complete one full sweep for every rotation of the motor.

The wiper is bolted to the wiper mechanism, and the angle this is adjusted to dictates the extremes of the range of motion (supposed to travel from a horizontal position, with the tip about 5cm from the bottom of the glass, through about 90 degrees to a vertical position)

The second joint that can lead to improper function, is the linkage between the motor and the rotating bar (the green rotating linkage in the diagram). If this isn’t adjusted correctly, then the motor will still spin a full rotation, and the wiper blades will still travel through a full range of motion, but the start/stop position of the wiper will be incorrect and it will rest in the wrong place.

For example, the wiper resting position could be halfway up at about 45 degrees say, and when turned on, would travel upwards to the vertical position, then travel back down, past it’s incorrect resting position at 45 degrees, to the horizontal position (which should be the correct resting position) and then immediately travel back up to the 45 degree resting position that it started from.

Note that the wiper still performs a full sweep, with a full motion back and forth, just split into two pieces because its start point is already half raised.


If the wiper is moving decisively and through a full range of motion, then I suspect it’s probably one of these adjustments on the mechanical mechanism that is incorrect, whereas if it’s struggling to move, and not covering a full range of motion, then it sounds more like a problem with the motor, or the power supply it is getting.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_8853.jpg
    IMG_8853.jpg
    11.3 KB · Views: 33
Last edited:
Indi said:
What exactly is wrong with your wiper, how is it behaving?

The motor is fairly simple, it just spins one full rotation for every sweep of the blade, and that rotational motion is transferred into the sweeping motion by a mechanical linkage. It’s a nice simple mechanism, and mostly done by mechanical means rather than electronic control.

The a2 mechanism is roughly the same as this gif:
View attachment 128991

If the motor is spinning correctly, then the wiper should complete one full sweep for every rotation of the motor.

The wiper is bolted to the wiper mechanism, and the angle this is adjusted to dictates the extremes of the range of motion (supposed to travel from a horizontal position, with the tip about 5cm from the bottom of the glass, through about 90 degrees to a vertical position)

The second joint that can lead to improper function, is the linkage between the motor and the rotating bar (the green rotating linkage in the diagram). If this isn’t adjusted correctly, then the motor will still spin a full rotation, and the wiper blades will still travel through a full range of motion, but the start/stop position of the wiper will be incorrect and it will rest in the wrong place.

For example, the wiper resting position could be halfway up at about 45 degrees say, and when turned on, would travel upwards to the vertical position, then travel back down, past it’s incorrect resting position at 45 degrees, to the horizontal position (which should be the correct resting position) and then immediately travel back up to the 45 degree resting position that it started from.

Note that the wiper still performs a full sweep, with a full motion back and forth, just split into two pieces because its start point is already half raised.


If the wiper is moving decisively and through a full range of motion, then I suspect it’s probably one of these adjustments on the mechanical mechanism that is incorrect, whereas if it’s struggling to move, and not covering a full range of motion, then it sounds more like a problem with the motor, or the power supply it is getting.
Click to expand...
It sweeps up, then, on the return sweep, it stops halfway across the windscreen. If you leave it on its cycle, sweeping back and forth, it only then sweeps from the resting place, middle of the screen, back to the edge and then back to the middle of the screen. That’s the issue.
 
LTUhura said:
It sweeps up, then, on the return sweep, it stops halfway across the windscreen. If you leave it on its cycle, sweeping back and forth, it only then sweeps from the resting place, middle of the screen, back to the edge and then back to the middle of the screen. That’s the issue.
Click to expand...
20240917_171323.jpg
Could be something as simple as a loose bolt on the motor linkage arms or the splines have been damaged/corroded where the wiper arm is fitted to the spindles. It may be partially engaging with the splines?
 
Last edited:
rotifer II said:
View attachment 129016
Could be something as simple as a loose bolt on the motor linkage arms or the splines have been damaged/corroded where the wiper arm is fitted to the spindles. It may be partially engaging with the splines?
Click to expand...
@LTUhura is @rotifer II’s diagram correct?

If so then I think it’s unlikely to be the linkages as I suggested previously, and my guess would be that the motor (or more specifically some of the gears in the reduction box) is/are toast.

That being said, it is definitely worth trying to make sure it is earthed correctly. On petrol cars, this can be done with a wire between this bolt on the engine, which is used as an earth already on the 1.4 BBY and 1.6 BAD engines:
IMG_8854.jpeg

And either of these two bolts on the wiper assembly itself:
IMG_8855.jpeg

These should be reachable without removing the wiper assembly from the car.
Do not use the mounting bolts for the wiper assembly, as these are sprung on rubber bushes so there will be no electrical contact with the wiper assembly itself
 
Indi said:
@LTUhura is @rotifer II’s diagram correct?

If so then I think it’s unlikely to be the linkages as I suggested previously, and my guess would be that the motor (or more specifically some of the gears in the reduction box) is/are toast.

That being said, it is definitely worth trying to make sure it is earthed correctly. On petrol cars, this can be done with a wire between this bolt on the engine, which is used as an earth already on the 1.4 BBY and 1.6 BAD engines:View attachment 129020
And either of these two bolts on the wiper assembly itself:View attachment 129021
These should be reachable without removing the wiper assembly from the car.
Do not use the mounting bolts for the wiper assembly, as these are sprung on rubber bushes so there will be no electrical contact with the wiper assembly
Click to expand...
 
Indi said:
@LTUhura is @rotifer II’s diagram correct?

If so then I think it’s unlikely to be the linkages as I suggested previously, and my guess would be that the motor (or more specifically some of the gears in the reduction box) is/are toast.

That being said, it is definitely worth trying to make sure it is earthed correctly. On petrol cars, this can be done with a wire between this bolt on the engine, which is used as an earth already on the 1.4 BBY and 1.6 BAD engines:View attachment 129020
And either of these two bolts on the wiper assembly itself:View attachment 129021
These should be reachable without removing the wiper assembly from the car.
Do not use the mounting bolts for the wiper assembly, as these are sprung on rubber bushes so there will be no electrical contact with the wiper assembly itself
Click to expand...
if you mean this? Yes. This is roughly the situation. It’s starts from the parked position and sweeps to the edge of the windscreen, then on the return sweep, it stops roughly the same as the diagram. If you leave it in cycle, it’s starts from where it stops and doesn’t park at the bottom of the windscreen.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2657.png
    IMG_2657.png
    1.3 MB · Views: 16
But sometimes it does goto the factory specified parked position, an intermittent fault. @Indi did suggest that it could be the gear cogs are not meshing correctly. The cogs maybe missing teeth, a centre shaft or their mounting points could be worn.
Are you going to wait until payday and get a mechanic to repair it?
 
rotifer II said:
But sometimes it does goto the factory specified parked position, an intermittent fault. @Indi did suggest that it could be the gear cogs are not meshing correctly. The cogs maybe missing teeth, a centre shaft or their mounting points could be worn.
Are you going to wait until payday and get a mechanic to repair it?
Click to expand...
No it doesn’t got back to the park at the bottom of the screen. It sweeps up and stops at the middle. It then sweeps from the position in the middle of the screen to the edge. You have to put it physically back to the park position at the bottom of the screen.

Not being a mechanic or having any kind of mechanical understanding of that, then it could be a wait until payday to fit the new motor, but the issue is then, my insurance runs out on my old car tomorrow and if the weather is as changeable as it is at the moment, I won’t have a vehicle to get to work in. So, I somehow need it sorted today/tomorrow temporarily until payday. The stress has been killing me.
 
Can you take the bonnet off please?
You need to reach the drive shaft locking nut? If you can reach it, check its tight please. (See photo number 4 above for nut location)

I want to see if we can drive the motor using the window wiper arm.

You are going to move the wiper arm by hand through 2 full sweeps and make a video same as the one below so we can compare.

Manually driving the wiper motor using the wiper arm​


You'll need to bump start the movement of the arm by pushing the linkage with your thumb to begin the movement at the same time as you are pushing on the arm. Once it's going it will keep goingbas long as you continue to manually move the arm back and forth.
 
Last edited:
rotifer II said:
I hope this test will indicate wether or not your splined wiper drive spindle is slipping.
View attachment 129173
Click to expand...
I don’t really have the time to carry out all this as I’m at work. I have a small window in the morning before work and have family commitments to deal with before I then have to go to work. I don’t finish until midnight, so as you can appreciate, this needs time that I currently don’t have. I also am not off work until next Tuesday, but I will need the car Sunday and Monday before I can look at this properly.

Right now I’d stick some string on the wiper and pull it……..
 
It sounds to me like the park position is wrong on the wiper.

When you turn wipers off they stop at the resting point or "park position". This should be at the bottom of the screen. You have said that the wiper does not stop at this point.

if something jammed the wipers while they were operating. the wiper arm, or arm on motor "may" have moved on the spline.

I would suggest take off the driven wiper arm (remove 1 x 16mm nut) turn on wipers so you can hear the motor running.

Turn off wipers. The motor should stop in the correct park position, then refit the arm. The sweep should be correct after this.

In the video in the link below it shows a chap adjusting his as it was set too low, yours is set too high, but the process of resetting is the same.


You can buy a 16mm spanner on Amazon for £3:60 you dont need anything else to try this, and it sounds like it cant make it much worse!
 
As stated above though, seriously - get yourself some spanners in useful metric sizes, swappable hex bits in various formats for different types of screw / bolt, a socket set of some description and other basic tools from Amazon or similar, maybe a set of jump leads. Soldering iron. Although not a Ford Model T or 2CV, an A2 is surprisingly easy to work on for a lot of the real basics, and there are so many helpful people here at A2oc who either have encountered other problems that you will run into at some stage and already written up a "how to" - or can be contacted for more explanation. As you have already seen many will chip in voluntarily when you post your issue - and it means you don't end up with a week-long saga unable to do anything when the most basic problem occurs.

For instance : right now, could you replace an H7 headlamp bulb if it blew at an inconvenient time lacking daylight (as with the wiper, also critical with earlier nightfall and later sunrise at this time of year especially with your working hours)? It's an under 10 minute job taking the headlamp out, and with suitable torx bits and being able to take the bonnet off easy to do - but without the torx driver it's all a bit like a James Herriot calving scene trying to reach in through the headlamp casing rear cover at an uncomfortable angle for wrist and elbow to undo the loom connector and then a spring clip that you can't see to release and then replace the bulb, usually with horrendous shadows being cast by whatever light you have been able to source being blocked by parts of your own body during the process. Taking out the headlamp makes it a doddle, even without undoing the headlamp loom connector just by giving a few more inches room to work and see what you are doing.

Note I'm not suggesting getting a full case of Snap-On tools and Full Fat VCDS (although if you can find an old PC laptop, VCDS lite can be very useful for a lot of other basic problems such as an engine light) - nice to have but not essential, especially if you're not doing the heavy duty workshop stuff for suspension, gearbox, engine bits and so on (as I don't). I've learnt nearly everything I know about basic A2 maintenance from fellow A2oc members with much more skills and knowledge than I have.
 
Thanks for the advice. Tools are on the list to get, but in this instance, I was glad that I took it to a specialist who knew how to change it and not charge me stupid money to do the job.

Now it’s done, I’m a lot less stressed. There are gremlins to solve, but for the most part, there’s not a lot that involves tools. It runs, albeit a bit lumpy, stops, starts and generally needs a bit of roof lining, but the wiper was desperately urgent. Ironically, it’s now sunny and dry.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top