Wiper motor upgrade

[SL500]

Thinking about my Cerb again, and remembered that she needs a better wiper motor. I had considered upgrading it years ago but that is a far as it went.

Has anyone carried this out, and not just refurbed the existing rubbish one?

[grovest]

Having burnt out two wiper switching modules before I did the job properly I recon the motor is fit for purpose providing there is minimal mechanical resistance in the wheel boxes, drive cable and the motor itself.

Mine went from drawing well over 9 amps to nearer 3 with the rust and general cack removed from the motor. Everything now moves at a reasonable speed and no more burning PCB smells in the cabin, which is nice!

If you have an ammeter pull the wiper fuse and put the meter across the terminals. I used an old blown fuse with the top cut back so the meter probes can make good contact. If you measure more than about 4A on slow and 6 on fast there is most likely a lot of friction somewhere in the system.

[N1CERB]

I stripped my motor out and even sent it to a local specialist to check all the internals out. All that was done was a real good internal clean and regrease. All the elctical parts were fine. I replaced it into the car and its still real slow and struggles to return back down the glass!

I am considering taking my car down to a specialist company in Auckland (Fraser Cars) and asking if they could build me up a custom wiper motor and linkage set up. I find now that if its slightly cloudy I dont take the car out just in case it rains!

Has anyone swapped theirs over?

[pmessling]

You can improve it loads buy treating the screen with rain x or the likes. And to use the washers more if it requires the removal of even a few spits of rain

[Adrian@]

IMHO (as I work on these all the time) there is nothing wrong with the OE system, YES if you have cooked the motor then you have cooked it! the heat affects the magnets and it will not work ever again ...no amount out stripping and rebuilding will cure the problem, (that is why 95% of motors I rebuild get armatures AND magnets) ALL of these motors are plus 15 years old, TVR sited them at the base of the screen and they run warm, draw in damp from the air and rust internally, (I paint them internally prior to rebuilding) whilst they are still working properly they can be serviced at a fraction of the cost of a full rebuild. In 9 years of working on them, IF this was a repetitive problem then I would expect to our units being returned, and I'm not!
Adrian@

[Zeemax_Mini]

Do you offer this as a service Adrian? If so what are the costs involved?

Cheers,

Dom

[SL500]

Many thanks for all the posts. My first Cerb that I owned also had a rubbish wiper motor, and the one I own now isn't much better. However I used to own a T350t and I must say that the wipers were excellent, (like a production car), and I can only assume that as the car was new it must have had a different type of set up.
Does anyone know?

[Adrian@]

Two completely different systems, BUT there is no reason that your current system (Lucas, cable driven system) should not work as well as the (Bosch rod ball joint system). The factory ran the Lucas system along side the Bosch system in the early 80 (Tasmin and the early S) and then converted ALL the cars to Lucas and ran them until 2000 when a dispute over the logistics of making a bespoke system that had been created for TVR and being forced by the producer to 'order X amount or else', made TVR change back to Bosch, leaving the company with the stock and an in house debt that they were very un-happy about. I have run new Griffith, used Griffith, new Chimaera and used Chimaera all working perfectly, I service my customers units with a 2hr labour charge inc. parts and DO NOT advise changing park switches into failing units, as, IF you are burning the points out then the load is too high, it is synonymous of a deeper issue, AT THAT point get the motor stripped and serviced and it will serve you well, IF the wipers are slow or stop then the motor is beyond servicing and it will need an armature and magnet set. Beyond that if they fail when still live then can take the car, melt the fuse box together (if someone has upped the fuse size).
Adrian@

Edited by Adrian@ on Tuesday 24th June 21:08

[N1CERB]

Adrian, I would be sending my motor to yourself in a hearbeat but I live in New Zealand so logistics are a nightmare! I did remove my motor and sent it to my local electical specialists (Bosch agents of that is worth anything) and they said there was nothing wrong with the motor itself and that it just needed a good clean up and greasing, which was done. I just assumed they would have done all electrical tests as I asked them.

Motor works just fine when no resistance of a window. But as soon as I drop the wipers down onto the screen its not happy and sticks.

Would you say they have missed something here?

I reckon I will just try and source a new one from somewhere here. Any part numbers from anyone much appreciated?

Thanks
Dave

[ianaddyadams]

Hi Adrian, do you still offer this service? What's the cost?

Cheers,

Ian