Classic Land Rover Wiper repair tale

What with all the recent rain/snow, the recent loss of my single wipe and then slow speed became an issue. Working fine on the fast speed, so I reasoned that the motor must be OK. Wrestled off the steering column covers, expecting to see a bit of dirt/corrosion - looked OK. Despite the meter showing the switch as OK I thought - "Must be further into the switch". The three little screws holding it to the steering column bracket were bigger than 6mm, smaller than 7mm. Bugger. Amazingly, after a root around I found an ancient 1/4" spanner in my overflow toolbox. Switch off, cleaned with brake cleaner - looked perfect. Off to the wiper motor, touched the wires going into the motor itself - suddenly everything worked fine. Bugger. "The brushes must be worn" - motor apart in a jiffy to confirm, but the brushes all had loads of life in them. The commutator was filthy. That's all it was, cleaned with fine emery paper in a jiffy and all good. Bloody hours wasted. Maybe a lesson for anyone here with similar issues?

Nice to hear a happy (and free) ending

Mine all work but are painfully slow. Might that be motor or more likely the cable thingy!

Gonna have to check mine soon.

No fast wipe, single intermittent if I almost bend the stalk, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, slow speed wipe!

Paul D said:

Gonna have to check mine soon.

No fast wipe, single intermittent if I almost bend the stalk, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, slow speed wipe!

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Sounds suspiciously like it may be the same thing - easy fix!

satchmolips said:

Mine all work but are painfully slow. Might that be motor or more likely the cable thingy!

Click to expand...

Could be either, if you can get the wiper arms off it's easy to remove the drive cable and grease it up. Or you could remove the top of the dash and have a go with a can of spray grease.

What can possibly go wrong with a system comprising so many cunning, fragile electro mechanical parts?

For those who don't include switches, relays, connectors and anything else that runs off or uses electrickery in their servicing schedules, may I recommend 'Servisol Super 10', because it not only cleans, it protects the contacts!!
Keep a can handy

Servisol Super 10 is ideal as a switch cleaner but will provide no lubrication on mechanical parts.

The switch was half full of old grease, which wasn't helping much. In BT, electromechanical moving contacts (Strowger exchanges) were not lubricated, in fact I spent a lot of time cleaning them.