Well, its typical. I got my 1989 3.6L XJS serviced last week and today, when driving home from holiday with the heavens bucketing it down, I noticed that the passenger side wiper was only moving a quarter of its sweep in the bottom half of the screen. It seemed to then get caught on the bit of chrome on the bottom of the window screen.

The driver's side wiper worked just fine but the wiper blade itself on the passenger's side seem to be working free (when I clipped it back into place, it did not solve the problem). Got to say that I was a bit terrified of burning out the motor on it by the time I got home, but it still seems to be working fine.

I would really appreciate some tips on possible causes and solutions. Don't think that its the motor, as the driver's side is fine. I suspect that if I can remove the casing for the wiper arm itself where it is bolted into the main system, that I should be able to just tighten up a nut. Any thoughts on this and a tip as to how to remove would be very much appreciated.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Tom
London. 1989, XJS 3.6L

 

Tom

Your 1989 should, repeat should, have the later electrolux wiper motor and lever actuation system. If one wiper is OK then the motor is OK, and the problem is the actuation mechanism. There are two possibilities:

The wiper arm is sippping on the splined actuation hub, or
The lever actuation system is somehow slipping/broken.

To test for the first: pull up the hinged cover at the base of the wiper arm to reveal the hub. Start the wipers and see if the arm is slipping relative to the hub.

For the second: remove the entire wiper system and grille. First remove the wiper arms, undo the nut under the arm hub cover and pull them off the hub splines. You can use pliers (one jaw under the arm, the other on the hub centre bolt, to click them off if necessary). Raise the bonnet, undo the two bolts you see holding the front of the grille to the bodywork. Next undo the two small 8mm domed nuts at the back of the grille between the grille slats. Wrestle out the entire thing, motor and all.

Then get someone to start the wipers and, holding the grille upside down, tosee what is happening.

Finally, if the system turns out to NOT be the lever actaution , but the older wheelbox and cable type, post again! Grublogger ior other breakers will have a good second hand unit if the levers are stuffed and not easily repairable.

Greg

 

It may be as simple as the nut holding the wiper arm to the pivot is loose.

 

Thanks, Greg. I think that - or rather am hoping - that its just a nut under the cover for the wiper arm.

But thank you for the heads up on the electrolux unit, I did some reading up on the different systems that Jaguar used over the years. It seems that owning an XJS is a much cheaper way of getting an M.Eng degree than going to university these days.

I'll let you know how I get on!

Tom

 

So, what it turned out to be was just a nut under the wiper arm.

I filmed it in action and took it to my local metal mickey to have a look, and he said "lift up the caps, whack a bit of WD40 and see if the nut is moving".

And it was, so I got an adjustable spanner...tightened it up. All good. No problems at all. Greg was spot on!

What he pointed out to me was that if one of the wipers is moving then the motor is fine.

Best of all though, when I was driving back in the pouring rain when it first went wrong, I didn't burn the motor out.

So its running as good as new. Great success!