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Othen · Mar 26th, 2020, 15:46

... and today's big news is: both headlamp washers and wipers are working (well, 90% true).

I don't think these had worked for many years (particularly the washers as the jets were missing). It was a nice day and I had nowhere to go, so I thought I'd find out what was wrong with these. The driver's side wiper more or less worked, the passenger side one had been intermittent, but stopped a few weeks ago.

I pulled the passenger side motor out (took about 3 minutes, just plastic clips hold the grille and headlamp trim on to the Royal Barge). There was clearly something wrong because the wiper spindle turned with no resistance. It was obvious someone had tried a repair in the past because the plastic back to the enclosure had been prised off and not replaced properly, so the little metal hockey stick con-rod that converts rotary to reciprocating motion had fallen out (hence no resistance at the shaft). I gave everything a clean up, put the con-rod back properly lubricated with grease and replaced the enclosure better than it had been previously (pretty firmly with a couple of zip ties).

Once reassembled, much to my amazement, the left side wiper worked (except it parks where it likes), but the driver's side one had stopped. The fault turned out to be the 40 year old electrical connectors by the expansion tank. Once taken apart, sprayed, scraped and pushed back together a bit more firmly both units joined in.

More good news was that the washer modification (bodge using two cheap Chinese windscreen washer jets) works fine as well. They just needed a new T junction/valve to make them operate properly.

I think this is as good as I can make it. I suspect I could make the left hand unit park properly - it is probably just some little leaf switch that needs cleaning up or bending back into place - but I don't think the enclosure would take being disassembled again, the plastic is quite brittle. So, I'll live with a 90% solution: with clean headlamps, and accept that one of the wipers parking wherever it likes is part of the 40 year old 'patina' for the Royal Barge.

:-)

Mar 26th, 2020, 15:46	#519
Othen Premier Member Last Online: Today 14:06 Join Date: Jan 2020 Location: Corby del Sol	Headlamp Washers/Wipers ... and today's big news is: both headlamp washers and wipers are working (well, 90% true). I don't think these had worked for many years (particularly the washers as the jets were missing). It was a nice day and I had nowhere to go, so I thought I'd find out what was wrong with these. The driver's side wiper more or less worked, the passenger side one had been intermittent, but stopped a few weeks ago. I pulled the passenger side motor out (took about 3 minutes, just plastic clips hold the grille and headlamp trim on to the Royal Barge). There was clearly something wrong because the wiper spindle turned with no resistance. It was obvious someone had tried a repair in the past because the plastic back to the enclosure had been prised off and not replaced properly, so the little metal hockey stick con-rod that converts rotary to reciprocating motion had fallen out (hence no resistance at the shaft). I gave everything a clean up, put the con-rod back properly lubricated with grease and replaced the enclosure better than it had been previously (pretty firmly with a couple of zip ties). Once reassembled, much to my amazement, the left side wiper worked (except it parks where it likes), but the driver's side one had stopped. The fault turned out to be the 40 year old electrical connectors by the expansion tank. Once taken apart, sprayed, scraped and pushed back together a bit more firmly both units joined in. More good news was that the washer modification (bodge using two cheap Chinese windscreen washer jets) works fine as well. They just needed a new T junction/valve to make them operate properly. I think this is as good as I can make it. I suspect I could make the left hand unit park properly - it is probably just some little leaf switch that needs cleaning up or bending back into place - but I don't think the enclosure would take being disassembled again, the plastic is quite brittle. So, I'll live with a 90% solution: with clean headlamps, and accept that one of the wipers parking wherever it likes is part of the 40 year old 'patina' for the Royal Barge. :-) Last edited by Othen; Mar 26th, 2020 at 16:35. Reason: Grammar.