Discussion
ianwayne said:
CHIMV8 said:
Just need Adrian to contact me,as i only have his PH details
This is his company:http://www.centraltvr.com/
Hmmmm ... £14,000 for a full restoration ...
Adrian@ said:
ianwayne said:
Not quite ...That is the wrong Adrian... Adrian@ or 07956956042 (just to be sure).I did send an email on your last email.
Adrian@
CHIMV8 said:
Wiper motor back fully refurbed and good as new
Back in position
Problem is "good as new" is total crap . Will it drag the blade across the screen like modern production cars .Back in position
Its on my list to get properly working screen wipers
Any info on the new ones?
Edited by SILICONEKID345HP on Saturday 28th November 17:37
SILICONEKID345HP said:
Problem is "good as new" is total crap . Will it drag the blade across the screen like modern production cars .
Its on my list to get properly working screen wipers
Any info on the new ones?
Darren mine work fine no problem Its on my list to get properly working screen wipers
Any info on the new ones?
Edited by SILICONEKID345HP on Saturday 28th November 17:37
maybe you should just buy a Japanese car thats built in Japan your getting fussy with age 
SILICONEKID345HP said:
CHIMV8 said:
Wiper motor back fully refurbed and good as new
Back in position
Problem is "good as new" is total crap . Will it drag the blade across the screen like modern production cars .Back in position
Its on my list to get properly working screen wipers
Any info on the new ones?
Edited by SILICONEKID345HP on Saturday 28th November 17:37
.But then again, if your car was concours and like a so called modern car,what the hell would you moan about
I often wonder when reading your replies,why the hell you have a Tiv,i could see you with the enlarged base ball cap,bull terrier on the parcel shelf and Scooby on the drive
CHIMV8 said:
Well,for one they go from one end of the windscreen to the other at 2 decent speeds now,if yours is like going through treacle Daz,you better get it sorted.
But then again, if your car was concours and like a so called modern car,what the hell would you moan about
I often wonder when reading your replies,why the hell you have a Tiv,i could see you with the enlarged base ball cap,bull terrier on the parcel shelf and Scooby on the drive
Its not asking alot for the wipers to work .So am i buying a new motor or having it refurbished ,who did yours .. Adrien vein .But then again, if your car was concours and like a so called modern car,what the hell would you moan about
I often wonder when reading your replies,why the hell you have a Tiv,i could see you with the enlarged base ball cap,bull terrier on the parcel shelf and Scooby on the drive
I think what Daz is saying is the Chimaera wiper system struggles to make a pass on a dry screen, all modern wiper sytems are capable of this and are in another league of efficiency when compared with what we have.
Clearly there's is a strong argument that says "why would you want to wipe a dry screen anyway?", and its hard to argue with this... but it's also true the Chimaera wipers could be an awful lot better and it's pretty obvious why.
The Chimaera uses the ancient Lucas spiral rack system, this is a flexible Bowden cable with an equally flexible coil of wire over it threaded down a tube to support the coil. The coil is really just a giant spring it's multiple coils creating what is effectively a flexible rack that can be threaded at angles making it easy to pass around obstacles and install on many different cars. The wheel boxes are the pinions that run on this springy rack, the teeth of which are very prone to wear and overall the whole system is very susceptible to play.
This cable/coil system with it's wear prone wheel boxes and springy coil rack was conceived by Lucas in the 1940's and continued to be the chosen wiper system for all British cars right up to the mid 1980's. Not because it was particularly good but because it was very easily adaptable to multiple applications. This was the one and only reason we suffered it for so long in the UK, essentially it made the designer's job a lot easier and kept production costs down.
It's for this very reason that low production vehicle producers like TVR continued with it and London Taxis still use it to this day. Make no mistake this system is never chosen for it's efficiency and as soon as TVR could they ditched it themselves; from the Tuscan on all TVRs benefited from a far superior solid rod system with rose joints.
Lets be frank here, the old Lucas cable & coil rack system was rather marginal on Morris Minors and Triumph Heralds back in the 1960's, cars that struggled to achieve speeds much in excess of 75mph. To my mind it has no place on a sports car capable of speeds in excess of 150mph, and while TVR did their best with it by fitting the most powerful motor they could the system was always heavily handicapped by the cable & coil rack element.
Sadly to retro fit some sort of solid bar type system to Chimaera would be very challenging indeed, from what I can see there simply isn't enough space in the front scuttle area to accommodate all the rods & linkages, let alone rout them all in a way to make it work smoothly.
This unfortunately leaves us back at square one and suffering a very outdated wiper linkage system, so the best we can hope to do with it is make sure it's all in the very rudest of health... and to use a few modern products to help it out as much as possible
1: Ensure the motor itself is in good shape (electrically & mechanically fit, do check the condition of the nylon gear & worm drive)
2: Check the motor gearbox grease hasn't gone hard with age (very common on British cars)
3: Make sure the motor is actually getting a full supply of amps (connector block prone to corrosion due to sitting in a water trap)
4: Ensure both wheel boxes are not worn (very common to see worn teeth, rotate to get a whole new life)
5: Check the cable & guide tube for kinks and fraying of the cable itself, inspect the coil rack for wear & stretching (coils must be uniformly spaced & the cable in perfect condition)
6: Repack wheel boxes & wiper gearbox with a modern lithium grease that will not harden over time
7: Use Rain-X on the screen (this really helps and takes the a lot of load off the whole system)
8: Fit new modern spec wiper blades (Michelin stealth hybrid smart flex wiper blades)
9. Never use the wipers on a dry screen - EVER! (Use of Rain-X makes no difference to this rule)
10: Fill your washer bottle with a good quality screen wash and use it sparingly
If you make sure every element of your Chimaera wiper system is in as new condition, you're using Rain-X on the screen and decent modern blades... the system will give adequate performance. If one single element on the whole system is in less than perfect operating condition the whole setup can best be described and inadequate.
It does seem we're kind of stuck with it all, so failing some clever person designing an improved rod setup I'm afraid our only practical option is to make the very best of what we have
Sadly... Thems the facts folks!
Clearly there's is a strong argument that says "why would you want to wipe a dry screen anyway?", and its hard to argue with this... but it's also true the Chimaera wipers could be an awful lot better and it's pretty obvious why.
The Chimaera uses the ancient Lucas spiral rack system, this is a flexible Bowden cable with an equally flexible coil of wire over it threaded down a tube to support the coil. The coil is really just a giant spring it's multiple coils creating what is effectively a flexible rack that can be threaded at angles making it easy to pass around obstacles and install on many different cars. The wheel boxes are the pinions that run on this springy rack, the teeth of which are very prone to wear and overall the whole system is very susceptible to play.
This cable/coil system with it's wear prone wheel boxes and springy coil rack was conceived by Lucas in the 1940's and continued to be the chosen wiper system for all British cars right up to the mid 1980's. Not because it was particularly good but because it was very easily adaptable to multiple applications. This was the one and only reason we suffered it for so long in the UK, essentially it made the designer's job a lot easier and kept production costs down.
It's for this very reason that low production vehicle producers like TVR continued with it and London Taxis still use it to this day. Make no mistake this system is never chosen for it's efficiency and as soon as TVR could they ditched it themselves; from the Tuscan on all TVRs benefited from a far superior solid rod system with rose joints.
Lets be frank here, the old Lucas cable & coil rack system was rather marginal on Morris Minors and Triumph Heralds back in the 1960's, cars that struggled to achieve speeds much in excess of 75mph. To my mind it has no place on a sports car capable of speeds in excess of 150mph, and while TVR did their best with it by fitting the most powerful motor they could the system was always heavily handicapped by the cable & coil rack element.
Sadly to retro fit some sort of solid bar type system to Chimaera would be very challenging indeed, from what I can see there simply isn't enough space in the front scuttle area to accommodate all the rods & linkages, let alone rout them all in a way to make it work smoothly.
This unfortunately leaves us back at square one and suffering a very outdated wiper linkage system, so the best we can hope to do with it is make sure it's all in the very rudest of health... and to use a few modern products to help it out as much as possible
1: Ensure the motor itself is in good shape (electrically & mechanically fit, do check the condition of the nylon gear & worm drive)
2: Check the motor gearbox grease hasn't gone hard with age (very common on British cars)
3: Make sure the motor is actually getting a full supply of amps (connector block prone to corrosion due to sitting in a water trap)
4: Ensure both wheel boxes are not worn (very common to see worn teeth, rotate to get a whole new life)
5: Check the cable & guide tube for kinks and fraying of the cable itself, inspect the coil rack for wear & stretching (coils must be uniformly spaced & the cable in perfect condition)
6: Repack wheel boxes & wiper gearbox with a modern lithium grease that will not harden over time
7: Use Rain-X on the screen (this really helps and takes the a lot of load off the whole system)
8: Fit new modern spec wiper blades (Michelin stealth hybrid smart flex wiper blades)
9. Never use the wipers on a dry screen - EVER! (Use of Rain-X makes no difference to this rule)
10: Fill your washer bottle with a good quality screen wash and use it sparingly
If you make sure every element of your Chimaera wiper system is in as new condition, you're using Rain-X on the screen and decent modern blades... the system will give adequate performance. If one single element on the whole system is in less than perfect operating condition the whole setup can best be described and inadequate.
It does seem we're kind of stuck with it all, so failing some clever person designing an improved rod setup I'm afraid our only practical option is to make the very best of what we have
Sadly... Thems the facts folks!
Just to add to the detailed list by COG, the motor is used on BL type Minis. They are fitted with tiny 10" blades on a car that does 70mph flat out so a lot less resistance.
On Chims the blades are much longer so produce more drag.
When mine overheated and stopped working, I simply removed the rear cover, cleaned all the rubbish out using WD40, checked the brushes for wear (virtually none), cleaned the terminals, refitted and working as well as ever.
I wasn't tempted to part with my money by buying an overpriced new one or having an unnecessary refurbishment. I'd be amazed if many motors on TVRs are in need of a total rebuild as these cars are not out in the rain much, if at all in some cases, so unlikely there is going to be much wear.
As above, the solidifying of the gearbox grease may be the simple solution.
On Chims the blades are much longer so produce more drag.
When mine overheated and stopped working, I simply removed the rear cover, cleaned all the rubbish out using WD40, checked the brushes for wear (virtually none), cleaned the terminals, refitted and working as well as ever.
I wasn't tempted to part with my money by buying an overpriced new one or having an unnecessary refurbishment. I'd be amazed if many motors on TVRs are in need of a total rebuild as these cars are not out in the rain much, if at all in some cases, so unlikely there is going to be much wear.
As above, the solidifying of the gearbox grease may be the simple solution.
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