Reassembly #2 - Wiper Motor Rebuild and Installation | Roundtail Restoration

Ever wonder how the wiper motor knows how to stop at the right spot, no matter when you turn it off? in this video I refurbish the wiper motor and wiper boxes and test them. The editing for this one is a bit wacky since I did it over several days, with two different motors. I was learning as I went, so...
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Want to see other random technical videos, not exclusive to my Spitfire (like generator testing)? • Technical Videos

[@ericpfiffner5615]

Cool! Good to see the soldering iron, that's our area of expertise. The tech term we use at work for a running motor is "spinny-spinny" so your term is just as applicable. On a modern car the wipers are tied in to the CAN bus and you need an $8k scan tool to program them, lol

[@roundtailrestoration]

I thought it might be more complicated. A shame. The old stuff was so simple and elegant!

[@djwallington2497]

Very interesting to see how your wiper tubing is fitted. I’ve just spent the whole day taking apart my wiper linkage to find out why they hardly work. The rack is extremely difficult to push through the tubing; looking at your tubing it’s nice and straight; mine seems to have loads of small bends in it which stops the rack moving. More parts from Rimmers tomorrow. Thanks for your in-depth tutorial. It’s always helpful to see how you do it when I’m unable to figure it out.

[@roundtailrestoration]

Good deal, glad it helped. I didn't have any real problems feeding it through and having it operate smoothly. If you are, I'd say you have some damage there, like you mention.

[@robincharlton8682]

The car paint job is looking great; nice to see the refurbished components going back in...

[@roundtailrestoration]

Thanks, Robin. It sure is. Starting to look like a car again!

[@Zincaloom]

Great info. Pre tinning is going to really help me. That power supply looks like a must have too. Thanks for explaining all this.

[@roundtailrestoration]

Thanks! I learned a long time ago that teaching something is the surest way to make sure you actually understand it. After several mis-starts, I finally figured it out.

[@rajuraghavan1779]

Very good vedio...👌👌Thanks

[@roundtailrestoration]

Thank you!

[@DoubleRRestorations]

Great job on the rebuild Chris. The wiper circuit for my cars was always real confusing to me until last year when I really dug into how it works. GM used several switches for some reason. Just like you showed though, it's just switching the ground to complete the circuit and it's done in a certain order to park the motor. Great video.

[@roundtailrestoration]

Thanks, Russell. Took me a bit to figure it out, but I eventually figured it out. Then I had to try it to make sure, of course!

[@WegsGarage]

That power supply is awesome! Nice toy! The wiper motor on our 64 TR4 is exactly the same, right down to the impossible grommets on the mounting pad. This vid is super helpful because we need to replace the "parking" wire on ours, but we chickened out on disassembling it that far. Now that I know what it looks like...🤔

[@roundtailrestoration]

It's not bad at all. Some small parts that are easily damaged (the cardboard pieces). Otherwise, go for it!

[@thebluecaddy2950]

This is a very informative video that will help me greatly when I rebuild the ww motor on my Sunbeam Tiger. I will add one thing and that is when you have plastic gears, you should use a silicone grease such as Lubriplate rather than a petroleum based grease. Petroleum based greases can be harmful to plastic gears. Thanks for the video!

[@roundtailrestoration]

Thanks for watching. And thanks for the tip. I just assumed the black nasty stuff in there was regular "grease".

[@johnmckenna8989]

...I placed a small plastic tube over the brushes tension spring so that when the brushes wear, the 'claws' that hold them can never contact and cut into the commutator, as I've seen it do in many Lucas wiper motors.....The wipers will continue working even as those claws chew into the commutator, eventually causing irreparable damage.....If you're in a rainy climate, this can happen faster than you think with those tiny brushes....John (west coast,Can.) 52 year TR3 owner...

[@roundtailrestoration]

That's a great idea, John. Thank you!

[@guyvanleeuw]

Thanks

[@roundtailrestoration]

Thank you! Very much appreciated!

[@sirt8684]

AWESOME !! that was so helpful mate - cheers

[@roundtailrestoration]

Glad it helped and thanks for watching!

[@ChristianHasselberg]

Really good video Chris!

[@roundtailrestoration]

Thanks!

[@1chish]

Just to add a little comment to an excellent video if I may? That circular plate is not that critical as to location of the wipers. As long as the wires are fitted safe is all that matters. When fitted to the car complete with wiper boxes, switch the wiper motor off, let it park and then fit the wipers in their park position. Lovely restoration my friend... top notch

[@roundtailrestoration]

You're right, of course. I was thinking about that the day after I put it in. I guess they expect you to not pull the wiper blades off each time, hence the reason to mark the position of the brake prior to taking it all apart? Thanks!

[@1chish]

@@roundtailrestoration You are most welcome Sir. There are in fact two positions depending on whether its left or right hand drive and the wipers park on the left or right. And that is dictated by what I call the 'piston' at the end of the connecting rod that connects to the long drive cable. At one end it pulls and the other it pushes. Just set the park switch to either of those positions and adjust with the wiper arms on the spindles. I use motorcycle chain grease / wax in my wiper motor and boxes. Other motors fitted to minis etc had a plastic switch that could be pushed out and replaced and was triggered by a block on the large driving cog wheel. That pretty much fixed the 'park' location. Keep up the excellent work and attention to detail my friend. Very enjoyable.

[@roundtailrestoration]

@@1chish Will do, thanks!

[@terryatpi]

Great video. Subscribed. Thanks

[@roundtailrestoration]

Awesome! Thanks for watching and subscribing!

[@specter578]

Chris, Thanks again for your Playlist. It's fantastic for a new spitfire owner like me. Mine was missing a wiper motor, so after buying one, i realized my rack was jammed too. I took mine apart and got it clear using your video as a guide. However, when trying to guide the wiper rack and boxes back into their rightful spots, the connector to the wiper motor is a little off. Did you have any issues with lining everything up?

[@roundtailrestoration]

Thanks! Yes, I had issues with alignment. I didn't come up with a solution but got it good enough. If I remember right I left everything loose until I got it how I wanted and then tightened it all down. Not great, but it worked.

[@magicsadan6515]

Well done

[@roundtailrestoration]

Thank you!

[@corylwillrise]

You don’t understand what amperes are exactly. The motor will draw whatever it will draw based on the voltage. The current knob on your test supply is a current limiter essentially.

[@roundtailrestoration]

I probably mis-spoke at some point. I think what I was trying to show was that at some point, no matter how far you turn up the voltage, the amperage draw maxes out. It also won't matter how far up you crank the amperage on the power supply. The motor will only draw what it can draw based on it's construction. Thanks, Cory!

[@yossiarias6791]

Excellent video Chris - thank you. I am now going to dive into mine. Are all parts of the wiper motor readily available? How hard is it to a complete novice in electrics to handle it? Thanks again for the video!

[@roundtailrestoration]

As far as I know, many of the internal parts are no longer available, especially the big main gear. Electrically, it's pretty straightforward. I don't think you'll have any issues there. Good luck!

[@yossiarias6791]

@@roundtailrestoration thank you mate! I am a devoted subscriber of your videos 😊

[@roundtailrestoration]

Thank you. If you have any problems or questions, don't hesitate to reach out.

[@yossiarias6791]

@@roundtailrestoration Thank you Chris - most appreciated!

[@DavidPlass]

"Spring spider thing" (1:27) sounds terrifying.

[@roundtailrestoration]

Lol. Sometimes I make stuff up...in case you haven't figure that out! 😀

[@ianwilliams1448]

So, what would cause it not to park, when testing on a bench? (The copper tag is in place inside the cover) where should I test for continuity on the parking brake side? It stops Instantly when power is removed.

[@roundtailrestoration]

Hi Ian. It sounds like you are losing continuity from the copper tag inside to the ground wire that's on the top of the unit and then goes into the motor itself. If this wire is broken at some point, as soon as you remove power, your short to ground (allowing current to flow) is also broken, and the motor stops. That copper tag, along with the wire that it's attached to, is what maintains the current flow until the motor pushes the gear around to fall into the spot where the copper isn't...the motor than stops. A bit confusing, maybe, as it works opposite a bit from how you might think.

[@ianwilliams1448]

@@roundtailrestoration Chris. How best to check this on the bench please?

[@roundtailrestoration]

If I remember right, that wire just runs through the case and doesn't really connect to the motor itself. I think you might be able to just run a jumper wire from the top of where it connects to the wiper motor (on the round cap) to ground. Start the motor and let it run a few seconds, then turn it off. I believe it should then run until the copper tag comes around. All you are doing there is essentially recreating the ground wire that goes from the case of the motor to the chassis near the wiper motor. On the motor, tab 1 goes to the switch, tab 2 goes to power and the unlabeled wire is the ground wire that allows the parking circuit to work. If you want to email me at [e-mail], I can probably find some pics that should help.

[@DavidPlass]

Great video; thanks for the explanations. The editing was fine, no worries. I'm interested in that power supply - can you provide info?

[@roundtailrestoration]

I had no idea how the parking thing worked. I feel like my life is that much more complete now! Here's a link to the power supply: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JQXQ8S5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1. There's lots of choices out there. I went with this one mainly because I like the Tacklife stuff. This was the first time that I really used it. Given that the Spitfire's generator is only rated for 23 amps, I didn't think I needed anything too powerful. I will try to use it so simulate the battery (not for starting the car, but for running various components after they're installed) so we'll see how it holds up to that.

[@stewartpalmer7039]

Put anti seize on the chrome nuts, I've had to cut old ones off.

[@roundtailrestoration]

For the wiper boxes you mean, I assume? I'll do that, thanks!

[@stewartpalmer7039]

@@roundtailrestoration yes they're also called wheel boxes and the chrome nut is a chrome wheel box nut. Btw great job on the wiper motor refurb I've just done it on my mini Cooper S, it takes a lot of thought.

[@roundtailrestoration]

@@stewartpalmer7039 Thank you! Definitely burned some brain cells, but made sense when it finally clicked.