Unusual Windscreen Wiper Trouble

[chimleic]

My windscreen wiper died this weekend. In particular, my drivers side wiper - which will happily move across the screen, but won't return. On examination it seems that it isn't getting sufficient mechanical grip on the mechanism to recover itself. I don't think it's an electrical fault as there is some movement to return it, but it cannot overcome the friction of the windscreen and just stays put. Having fiddled with it, you can move the windscreen wiper quite easily by hand in either direction across the windscreen.

Any thoughts or tips?

Or is it a job for TMS (and holes cut through the bulkhead for access)?

Cheers,
Andy

[parrot of doom]

Whats the voltage at the motor?

[pupp]

Assuming the arms aren't slipping on the spindle splines due to loose mounting nuts, my money is on your drive cable being worn. The thing runs back and forth in a tube and 'wound' helical ridge engages with teeth on gears at the bottom of the spindles. Any wear here (the winding gets 'flatted') and the gears skip the cable with the result the wipers get out of synch.

I doubt you'll buy a new cable from a TVR dealer as they are listed together with the motor and spindle assemblies as a complete package. However, I did buy a suitable one from here:- www.s-v-c.co.uk/SVCWIPERS.HTM This site also has lots of info on how the blessed system works.

Last time mine failed, I ended up modifying the gear housings to ensure a tighter meshing of the drive bits but that does require behind dash access (with lots of swearing). Simply replacing the cable can be done from under the bonnet (you will need to reposition the wiper arms after rethreading the thing), so I would try that first.

[chimleic]

Thanks for that. I definately think that it's a mechanical rather than electrical fault. Your description seems very logical for the symptoms I'm experiencing.

I think it's covered under my warranty, so will be popping down to TMS soon!