Wiper Motor not working....Rack?

HI Everybody,

I am getting rather annoyed with the fact that 3 wiper motors have gone in the last 2 months.

I went down to a pay and play site and the motor stopped, tried to push wipers back and snapped the spindle. My garage then replaced the spindle and I'm pretty sure they changed the wheel boxes too. yayayay it worked.

A week later the fuse blew about 5x and eventually the motor blew.The wipers could hardly move across the screen. Swapped it out for a temp motor and checked the movement of the wipers without the rack in the motor and had no problems with movement and then no problems with the older motor. ayayayy it worked.

Another week later the wipers stopped again. Ive ordered another one and is on its way.

Ive been told the rack cable is not lubricated which is causing it? Thinking about buying a new cable? Is it easy to replace without a dash removal jobby?

Any help is appreciated.
btw I have a defender 90 1991
Cheers,

Obviously there is a problem causing this as a wiper motor should last 20-years or more, not 3-weeks!
Accessing the wheel-boxes is easy, just remove the dash top-rail. This will also give access to the wiper drive cable and it is possibly this that is sticking and causing the motor to blow. When I reassembled mine 12-years ago (using all the original parts) I made sure the cable was well greased.

Cheers for the reply Litch,

Yeah i know, its quite ridiculous.

Ive just ordered a new cable which should arrive soon. In the mean time Im going to take the old cable out and get it ready. Is it a simple process to replace the cable? Will standard grease or bearing grease do the job? And do it need to grease the wheelboxes?

Sorrry for all the questions,
Cheers

The cable is easy. Take off the wiper arms, unscrew the cover that covers the wiper motor, undo the two large screws that hold the motor in place along with the electric plug, then undo the nut at the top of the motor where the cable gois into it. The cable simply slides out the whole lengh of the dash ish. Remember the remove the wiper arms first though.

When mine stopped I removed, cleaned and greased the cable and boxes and it's has been perfect 18 months since

Not done this on a defender yet, but on my old classic mini with the exact same system, my wheelboxes were really tight to turn. It is worth stripping it all down and freeing off or replacing any of the parts that are misbehaving. Once back together and properly greased they should be fine.

Cheers for the quick responses. So far I have removed the cable and waiting for the new parts.

I will let you know how it turns out.

Thanks again.

ByCameltoVietnam said:

Cheers for the quick responses. So far I have removed the cable and waiting for the new parts.

I will let you know how it turns out.

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Aye keep us informed as i have the same prob...Just using rain-X

All parts are ready to go in now for the weekend.

Was wondering if it was worth greasing the wheel boxes even though they were put in under a week ago by my garage? One was moving with no problems, the other one was a tad less free?

Cheers

It may be better to try working in oil or spray lube of some sort, it's not that easy to get the grease down into the wheel box shaft.

Update:

New wiper cable( too long), new gears, new motor and park switch.

All fitted and works, but not on intermittent or screen wash, o and the wipers don't park???

Any ideas, nearly everything is new? Checked wires to motor and all read as they should.

Any help appreciated
Cheers

ByCameltoVietnam said:

Update:

New wiper cable( too long), new gears, new motor and park switch.

All fitted and works, but not on intermittent or screen wash, o and the wipers don't park???

Any ideas, nearly everything is new? Checked wires to motor and all read as they should.

Any help appreciated
Cheers

Click to expand...

What was the part number for the one that you ordered that was too long?
I am looking to replace mine and the only part no I can find is RTC202 which seems to apparently fit all models up to 2002. I saw another one on the craddocks website which says cut to fit but I thought the ends of it would need to be fixed?

Can you let me know which one you go for in the end?

I went with RTC202 and trimmed it down and it has fixed the problem

Hi
I am having a problem with my wipers on my defender 90' the motor runs and the wiper shaft is free but the arm doesn't move it just seems to slip on the cable,what seems odd is that it's the same on both wipers? Is it that the cable needs changing? Or is it something I am missing?