Wiper motor and linkage. Photo request.

[dougdee123]

This is another of those things that makes you think that attempting to repair anything is doomed to failure particularly when it was not working too badly to begin with.

My sister's Punto had a sick wiper motor that had dried up bearings which eventually welded themselves together and caused burning coils and plastic with smell and loss of function in a downpour. So I thought that there would be some benefit in regreasing all of the rose joints in the linkage and dismantling the motor itself to see if I could regrease the bearings there as well.

So I removed the linkage and motor without difficulty. Took it all apart and did the job. The motor came apart without difficulty and was surprisingly clean inside. I applied some moly grease to the plain bearing at the bottom and to the worm gear and then reassembled it, trying to minimise the amount of grease that got onto the brushes. Tested it prior to reassembly - all good.

Then the linkages came apart and were greased. The spindles are different. Immediately under the wiper cone there are circlips and flat washers. Under those are 'o' rings and one has what I take to be a wick and which I have soaked with oil. As an aside, should both have one? Here the problem has arisen. The linkage etc went back together but I cannot for the life of me refit the assembly back in the car. I had to stop before I really damaged something.

Clearly I am reassembling the ensemble incorrectly. Can any kind person tell me whether the driven side of the linkage should be in the offside spindle or the nearside. Mine is a RHD coupe. What would really help would be a photo of the wiper and linkage out of the car so if someone has one in their spares stash you would earn my undying gratitude. Also, as a further aside, am I correct in believing that it doesn't matter exactly the alignment of the motor and the crank since you can correct the alignment when you refit the wipers.

Maybe I'm getting too old for this and you stop remembering the sequence of events if you believe it can only go together one way. I did take some photos but they were clearly inadequate.

If anyone can help I will be grateful.

Doug

[rossocorsa]

I have one as whole car is stripped out, will try to seek it out if I remember and have time

[dougdee123]

I have refitted the wiper assembly. Unfortunately the answer was that more squeezing , levering and prying were needed. Bit of the linkages were catching in the area under the scuttle. I had previously worked on the theory that if you are forcing it, you're doing it wrong. This turns out not to be the case. I suspect that when I fitted it originally I had not yet installed the heater and so there was a bit more room.

In addition I routed the cable out of the top of the wiper motor pvc wrapper and that also helped.

So, another job done but at the cost of scratching in the channel in front on the windscreen. I'll need to touch up some of the scars.

There are days I really wonder about the ability of the designers. I suspect that the conversion to RHD was given to the apprentice with instructions not to spend any money.

So, onward!

Doug