Front Wiper Motor Arm Modification

Thought I'd share my afternoons work with you all, especially if anyone is having the same issues.

Basically the wiper arms fall off its ball joint spigot due to wear of the plastic type grommet, from experience recently pretty dangerous if it's chucking it down and your wipers stop whilst driving. (You can still hear the motor turning, but wipers don't move!)

Remove the 2 separate wiper bolts, remove the plastic trim, unbolt the 3 bolts retaining the wiper motor arm unit and unplug the electrical connector.

The motor unit will now pull away from the recess.

Before you drill, make sure the motor assembly and arms are in the correct position as they would be in the motor off position.

Place the arm cups onto the rotating arm ball joints and drill right through the plastic grommet cup and metal ball joint.

Find a metal wire coat hanger (or similar), decent thickness. Make 3 pins from the coat hanger, thread through the hole drilled joining the arm and cup and bend to lock in place!

Saves buying new parts and the rain off your windscreen.

great work but for a couple of quid you can but the clips that do the same job of ebay

Just got a pair of new arms of ebay £19 job done properly no Heath Robinson repair so should be good for another 150,000 miles.

illy

Well done........

Re: teddywood1 / illy


I had to save the day myself and use my own resources

Found the parts you mentioned though.

Clips - windscreen wiper motor linkage repair clip land rover freelander / item 251316699931 - £6

As for the new arm linkages / item 200957898400 the prices seem to start at £30 for a set with 3 yr warranty.


Cheers for the info

Carried out similar emergency mod by drilling the top of the joint and using a self tapper and washer, used the eBay clip as a more permanent mod (been on for over 12 months now with no signs of wear on the clip).

tsam19 said:

Thought I'd share my afternoons work with you all

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Nicely done very sustainable!

but errrrrm.................needs more cable ties!!

teddywood1 said:

great work but for a couple of quid you can but the clips that do the same job of ebay

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You're missing the point man!!

it's the sort of mod I like to do as a roadside repair!

Northern Irelander said:

You're missing the point man!!

it's the sort of mod I like to do as a roadside repair!

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I am not saying it was not worth doing but I do not think he realised what you can get I have myself done mods like that in the past on the road side and I clap my hands at him doing it but I was just saying that's all and he can still use the rest of the hanger the hook can be used for fishing and I remember years ago in the 60s I broke down with a joint on the prop shaft going and a man came out of his house and asked if he could help , well he could and he did he lend me his drill and I ended up putting a bolt through the joint to get me my 60 miles home at a steady pace in a old Hillman minx so I do congratulate any body for doing those kind of repairs

Thinking back to the old days, get it home was the order of the day. Head gaskets on motorway services, you name it we did it, it was an indication of a poor mechanic if you had to send for the wrecker, how times have changed. We had a ex REME mechanic who's comment was always" what would you have done in the desert" nowadays most of the breakdown company's just say stick it on the back and we'll take you home, great if you've got recovery but expensive if you've not.

teddywood1 said:

I am not saying it was not worth doing but I do not think he realised what you can get I have myself done mods like that in the past on the road side and I clap my hands at him doing it but I was just saying that's all and he can still use the rest of the hanger the hook can be used for fishing and I remember years ago in the 60s I broke down with a joint on the prop shaft going and a man came out of his house and asked if he could help , well he could and he did he lend me his drill and I ended up putting a bolt through the joint to get me my 60 miles home at a steady pace in a old Hillman minx so I do congratulate any body for doing those kind of repairs

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That's the spirit man!

I hear you and heard you the first time ,
it's not the nominal price of new clips, it's rising to the challenge and not being defeated by some poxy part (of which there are many in Land Rovers)

Takes me back to when I fabricated some cam sprocket locking tools............they only cost a few quid to buy, but it was mid-July when I did the Head gasket change. During July, most of the country shuts down in NI for two weeks holiday, that's a long wait

nickcc said:

Thinking back to the old days, get it home was the order of the day. Head gaskets on motorway services, you name it we did it, it was an indication of a poor mechanic if you had to send for the wrecker, how times have changed. We had a ex REME mechanic who's comment was always" what would you have done in the desert" nowadays most of the breakdown company's just say stick it on the back and we'll take you home, great if you've got recovery but expensive if you've not.

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Very true, things were built to last in them days, most modern parts are probably designed to fail, as economists build cars and not engineers!!

I always carry a supply of duct tape and cable ties for those emergencies

Northern Irelander said:

Very true, things were built to last in them days, most modern parts are probably designed to fail, as economists build cars and not engineers!!

I always carry a supply of duct tape and cable ties for those emergencies

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have a cable tie on my wiper linkage for over a year and still no problems

last time I broke down in Enniskillen the main stealers could not fix it, they could not even find where the water was coming from ,and asked me how long I was going to be staying there , I said another 4 days they could not even get the parts before then .so I took the header tank cap off a so no pressure and got home, and went to the main stealers here and I was going to order the back metal pipes but saw another freelander for sale so brought that.the old one had 173,000 tough miles on her so I thought it was about time.