Weak wiper motor...help!
 

Seem like every wiper motor I come across is week. My present wiper motor wont move when the wind screen is dry and moves slow when the wind screen is wet. I lubed the guide tube and the pivots and it made no improvement. Any one know a source for a stronger wiper motor?

Is the voltage to the motor up to par? Are the grounds clean? Are these used motors or new?

As said, AND, what year and model we trying to fix here???????.

These are generally fairly strong motors. The main issue is voltage TO the unit, and as said EARTHS.

The factory grease INSIDE the actual gearbox is more than likely hard and concrete looking by now, and most I have dealt with revive well to a good clean out, and some fresh "new generation" waterproof grease.

The "toothed" drive cable also "binds" in the tubes, and a clean and regrease here does wonders.

The 2 wheelboxes also bind up, and are a PAIN to clean, but do-able.

In all my years I have never seen a burnt out wiper motor, tired/lazy/binding, YES, heaps. A good few hours of "servicing" has always reaped good results for me.

The stalk switch on S2 do have contact issues now, simply due to old age.

The S3 also has contact issues, and damages easily from "ham fisted" operators, at least down here that is a major issue.

+1 on everything Grant mentioned, as usual :-)

Yeah, you can usually bring 'em back to full gusto....but bear in mind that even "full gusto" isnt exactly the fastest in the world :-)


CHeers
DD

update...
 

Wiring is OK, I just made up some leads directly from the battery cable and ground to the motor bypassing the park switch to test. I hooked up a voltage meter too and V was 12.2 with vehicle off. Then I hooked up a battery charger too and the wiper motor is still very lazy and wont move with a dry windshield. If I lift the wipers off the wind screen they cycle very quickly....it seems as if the wiper motor has speed but no torque. The vehicle in question is a 76 Xj6c but I transplanted a complete wiper system from a 86 xj6 I parted awhile back and lubed it all then. The original wiper system was a bit worse.

Mmmmm, much clearer now.

The "dry windscreen" on these is really a no-no. Not good for teh glass, and the system in general. OK, you probably dont want to hear that, but that is as it is in MY opinion.

The fact they work "quickly" when the blades are OFF the glass, indicates to me that the system is all OK, just the drag of the arms too much for the design of that particular system.

Doug is correct, they were a dismal system, and especially when you think of the country of origin, and the amount of rain they get, even more dismal comes to mind.

They will never come close to more modern Jags.

the wiper system in the XJ-6 is always lazy, it has always been my own complaint. But it wasn't always like that, for example the wipers in the 1963-1968 Jaguar S type are a lot faster even turning them on to run on dry glass (which is not reccomended anyway in any car). Same with the Jaguar 420, (which is essentially an S type with a different front clip and engine), they are very fast in comparison to the XJ-6. Almost identical system by the way.

and what is even more incredible, the Wiper Motor in the S type and 420 has a thumb-knob that lets you adjust where exactly you want the wipers to park when you turn them off, you can fine-tune the wipers' parking to the 32nd of an inch. Not in the XJ.

the only thing the S type and 420 doesn't have is the intermittent speed of the Series 3 XJ. But who needs that, the wipers are embarrasingly slow anyway.

here's some tips to try and speed them up:

1) The Easy Tip: remove the wiper arms; inject a few drops of transmission fluid down the wiper arm shafts (at the cowl wheelbox) as the shafts are moving, (wiper motor running), just a few drops on each shaft, unless you want transmission fluid leaking on your carpet and legs.

2) The Difficult Tip: disconnect cable from motor, (very delicate operation which requires removing wiper motor from its mountings and removing the metal cover plate), pull cable entirely from car, grease well, re-insert cable and re-connect to motor. Wiper arms and blades must be removed from the wheelbox shafts when doing this; This operation in particular requires experience, if you've never done it before, I suggest you practice with an old motor and cable in advance, otherwise you will end up with a bunch of parts flying off the motor and everything getting out of synchro.

3) The Even More Difficult Tip: Add Speed Relays to wiring; this is a complex re-wiring job based on the premise that the problem is caused by the distance between the Wiper's Stalk Switch in Left Hand Drive cars and the Wiper Motor itself, since it was designed originally for Right Hand Drive cars where the wiring would be a lot closer from the switch to the motor.

Add a Hella intermittent wiper control unit
 

On my long list of things that are not wonderful in S1 XJ Jags, the wipers are
near the top of the list.

I added a Hella 5WA001871-041 intermittent control unit to my S1 and it works wonders. I can use the very first position from off and it controls and parks perfectly.

It is the best change I have made so far. I have the wiring setup for anyone interested. See the pictures of the new knob on my dash.

dont know where to go from here...
 

Anyone bought a rebuilt motor from ebay? Rockauto? New brushes? Any success with that? I already had it all apart, cleaned, lubed etc. I cant take the lazy wipers...nothing else about my Jag is lazy...except the windows but I'm working on a fix for that now.

All of the above sound great. and, it appears that full voltage is at the motor, then, maybe the ground/earth needs attention.

And, wiping the blades with glycerine or dish soap as a lubrivant speeds the blades as it reduces rubber to glass friction.

Or if the inserts are old and sun hardend fresh blades does a lot.

And, Rain X helps even the best of wiping systems.

Rain tonite, but, I'm going nowhere.

My neighbor is working hard to close in hs shed before the rain drops fall. ( a take off from Freddy Fender's when the tear drops fall)

Carl

wiper update
 

Thanks to all of you who replied and helped me get the wipers working much better. My wiper problem has been fixed. Now my wipes move fine even on a dry windsheild. Some issue were related to age and some issuess were related to me and my upgrade to series 3 parts on a series 2 car. Here is what played out...

1. Replaced the 5/16 steel tube from wiper motor to the passenger side wiper. My tube was kinked in a few spots for some reason and the 90 degree bend wasnt as smooth as it could be. I replaced it with a 3/8 aluminum tube that was hand bendable. The 3/8 aluminum has a thicker wall than the steel tube and but inside diameter turnes out to be slightly larger than the 5/16's steel tube. I bent up a new piece of 5/16 steel tub and compared it to the 3/8 aluminum tube and the 3/8 aluminum tube move more freely. I installed it the wiper worked better... but not good enough.

2. The wind screen angle on a series 2 is much diffrent than a series 3 and so are the wiper pivots. I had to modify the sleeve on the series 3 wiper pivots to match the angle of the series 2 wind screen. I thought this would do the trick because it was something I had missed when I upgraded the wiper system but it hardly made any noticeable difference. So I took apart the wiper motor, cleaned up the armature scotch bright, greased the tail, and put it back together, reinstalled and now it's worse! Uggg!

3. Then...I replaced the wiper motor with a replacement from a series 3 parts car I recently aquired. The wipers got stuck on this car too so I wasnt too optimistic...but in my series 2 combined with the other fixes...it works well enough even on a dry windsheild. I guessing the series 3 parts car had wiring issues, switch issues or other issues my series 2 no longer has. I sprayed some water on the glass and the wiper are moving very well and clearing very well too.

Great Success! (Borat voice)

I made contact with the wiper motor rebuilder and his conclusion is: the culprit is the gear ratio inside the motor itself. (same principle as in a differential ratio he explained); I'm sending one of my wiper motors and he's going to experiment with different gear ratios to get faster speeds. Fortunately he is experienced with many British marque wiper motors so he might fix this problem once and for all.

update....Series 1 motor is strong!
 

The 2nd XJ6C I'm restoring has lazy wiper too. So I a tried somethhing diffrent. I found a Series 1 wiper motor on ebay and ordered it. When it arrived it was clearly not a drop in so I swapped the motor and just the motor. I removed the series 2 motor and installed the series 1 motor on my wiper origional head assembly. The only diffrenace I could see was a totaly diffrent brush design. When the swap was complete I put on the wipers and they were much improved. Not like a modern car but still much improved. Then I tried to start the car and is just clicked....I had left the key on for awhile and the battery was discharged...it had just 9v and the wipes still worked better. I put a battery charger on the car for awhile and tried the wipers again....they moved very fast not lazy at all. More Great Success!

I hope this thread is still open. I am looking at the wiper motor/gear box on my 1985 S3 and see that it could use a new set of brushes. I don't know the size of new brushes, but mine are only about 3/16" long. I bought the car with the engine removed and it hadn't been driven in 14 years. The motor/gear box runs ok, but I would rather fix what is needed now, not at the first rain shower. Does anyone know where I might get a set (3) of brushes, or is there some other small motor that you have discovered with serviceable brushes?
Dave

Check a hobby shop that sells radio controlled toy vehicles. That's where I found the brushes for my XJ6's auxiliary water pump. Just bring the old brushes in. Find the closest match. It is quite easy to file them a bit to make them fit.

Great idea! I would never have thought of that. Thanks.
Dave

the brushes for S3 Lucas wiper motors are available. Go to ebay.uk and you will find them there.

Thanks Jose, you beat me to the post. I planned to pass along that last night I stumbled onto an eBay listing for my exact brush set. There was also a listing for the same brush set belonging to a "Defender". The price was very reasonable and the postage even better. It's on the way.

great LT1, I also know where you can get them in the US but it is less expensive to order them from UK !