Genocache: Land Rover single motor wiper repair

1 Nov 2022

I was coming back from shopping in the first rain of the year and........GACK! my wipers stopped moving! Got lucky I thought as they stopped in the "park" position. It was raining hard and the Rainex on the glass enabled me to see and drive the 6 more miles home.

After puttin the groceries away and having lunch the rain slowed and I checked the fuse, it was good. So not a simple fix....After the rain stopped, the dash panel with the switch was removed. and I used my test lamp to check power flow through the switch, all good. Has to be at the motor. Right?

I have no idea how old or used the motor is. Unscrewed the cover and flipped the switch, nothing! Again using the test lamp I could tell power was getting to the motor. So the motor has to come out. :^( It's not complicated and not easy at the same time.

Removing the clamp is the first step, the bottom nut is hard to access. On my 109 I have a flat bar with 1/4-28 bolts welded to it as opposed to the factory Late 2a-3 nut bar. With the bottom nut off using a 7/16" deep socket and extension bars I could then take off the top nut.

With the unit loose the wires disconnected the motor to wheelbox tube needs to be disconnected at the wiper rack nut. This makes the unit easier to turn around for access to the back panel of the unit. Removing those 1/4" head screws gives one access to the inside of the drive. The slidey gizmo needs to be disconnected from the drive cable simply by pulling it out.

Once this was all done and the unit in hand I could see why it had stopped. There was hope yet for a cheap repair!

Can you see the horse shoe clip jammed in the gear? Using an ice pick I prised the clip out.

It was bent to ......well you know.

I think it is spring steel and I tried flattening it out but wasn't perfect so I went online for help. Didn't go so well as noone has an IPB of these units. Having a vague recollection of a spare I searched, and searched, finally I found it in the last place I looked, funny how that works!

Then it took an hour of cleaning up the greasy mess someone had given me. But Yay! it had a clip! BOO it was the wrong shape and size.......you can see them both in the pic. The spare is on the right. it used a smaller "e" clip.

It also used a different shaped slidey dogbone drive thingy. Technical terms, don't get confused.

The next day I went to an auto parts store in search of a horse shoe clip, no luck, didn't have an e clip that fit. Then hit the local hardware store where I found a 1/4" e clip and I bought 2 of them $.30ea.

At the same time I figured out the spare I had must have quit due to the 1 brush had lost connection and the PO didn't want/couldn't fix it. You can see the brush in the pic above, below is the wiper motor brush assy #RTC198.

It looked like the PO had not stored, or perhaps used the wiper in wet conditions as the windings show rust and doesn't turn so good. I'll not use this one.