Windshield Wiper Motor
 

When my car ran last with the windshield wipers, they were slow. Like really rrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllll lllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy slow. To the point where they would die mid-swipe half the time. I'm not a huge fan of that. To add insult to injury, the 2 years I let the car sit, the plastic wiring connector has rotted away from what looks like either UV or salt damage (well, actually it could have been rotten way before that, I just never noticed).
Recently, I've gotten her up and running and driving. Currently, it is June-uary in the Pacific NW and we are getting loads of rain. I would like to drive her more than once a week, which is making me crave new windshield wipers. In addition, eventually the plan is to make her a rally car, so good strong wipers are needed.

How strong are rebuilt/new FB wiper motors? What are other motors I could look at? I know 510 guys often times use Miata wiper motors. Does anyone know about that? Or FC wiper motors: Are they any better?

Thanks guys,
--
Evan

the wiper motors are plenty strong. what you need to do is remove the wiper rack and lubricate the plastic bushings at all of the hinge points. you can disassemble it carefully or use a spray type grease and hope for the best.

Check your charging system too

its the rack itself. the rubber seal on top of the wiper pivot isn't that great in the first place, and sometimes its missing. water gets between the pivot and the actual thing the pivot sits in, so you need to disassemble the wiper pivots, clean and re grease.

be very careful of the plastic bushings, they are NOT available separately.

Thanks guys!
I started to disassemble the linkage and clean it up. There's a bit of grease and grime, and some surface rust here and there so I'm tackling the thing with some simple green, sandpaper, and some paint as well.

I'm assuming nothing really needs to be done to the plastic pivots in the linkages, just the 2 threaded brass ones? Getting them off just looks like careful work with some small snap-ring pliers, correct?

i would grease EVERY hinge, especially the plastic cups that go over the metal pivot balls. those can bind can break. grease them and everything will be as good as new

Yep, snap ring pliers and some patience and it'll come apart, the brass shafts are where the problem always seems to be, but lubing everything else up while you're at it can't hurt.

I have a completely rebuilt wiper motor assembly with spherical rod ends and SS rods I made up for my IT7 race car you can have for $75 + shipping. If you are interested I'll post a picture.

^I've toyed with the idea of modifying one like that, I'd be interested in seeing pics!

me too. throw some pics of that bad boy up!

Here are some pictures.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...0620-00098.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...0620-00100.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...0620-00099.jpg

Obviously one of the rods is not SS.

Thanks for the offer, but I'd probably just build my own for less than $75 if I decide to go that route. That's a really sweet setup though!

Very cool, thanks for the pics! One thing I've always wanted to do is find some bearings (probably needle given the size) to replace the brass tubes that the wiper arm shaft ride in. Those always get all corroded and seize up around here. Would be nice to have something better... One of the many projects that'll happen "someday" lol

Make me an offer. Otherwise I'm keeping the heims and rods, and what remains will be recycled like the rest of my totalled race car. :(

Tempting, but I want to see what my $2 of grease will do with it before I drop any extra money. Plus, the wiring for pretty much everything in this new shell I have is super duper fucked. Almost to the point of me toying with the idea of tearing the whole harness out and making my own for just powering the essentials. I don't think I will, because that's a steep learning curve and I don't have the time for an undertaking like that right now. The wiring I discovered for powering the wiper motor in this chassis made me laugh: it has wires leading to the fusebox, but nothing on the other side of the fuse. Time to start chasing little blue wires! :.(