TR2/3/3A Wiper Motor Troubleshooting

[sepp]

The Lucas DR2 windshield wiper motor on my 1959 Tr-3a has started to slow down after a minute or so of running and the motor feels quite warm. Does anyone know of a shop that can check out and rebuild these motors? Thanks.

 

[SASSAMON]

sepp,

Many DR2 motors just need a good cleaning and the grease replaced.

The external wire for the parking function on my motor was broken and it was going to be more than I could do myself.

I had my Lucas DR2 wiper motor rebuilt by:

Peter Gigliotti
Horn & Wiper
8 Leonard Road
Walpole, MA 02081
617.645.5703
hornandwiper@gmail.com
british-car-part-restoration.com

The motor came back looking like new, even the external wire used for parking the wiper blades was replaced with new.

As Peter does this work part time it took a while for the job to be finished but I had the motor rebuilt over the winter months so as not to lose any driving time.

Roger

Added: The website is down at the moment due to whois registration questions. Give Peter an email for more information.

 

[sepp]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly!
I have been dealing with this problem for quite a while and back in 2015 I actually did send the wiper motor off to Peter Gigliotti. He had it for seven months and tried a number of things but he was never able to fix it and ended up sending it back to me.
I will probably take your suggestion and clean it and replace the grease and see if it helps - although I am sure Peter did that as part of his attempt to fix it.
Thanks again!

 

[CJD]

Several months!! It takes 15 minutes to remove and disassemble. If he didn’t find the issue in the motor, then you likely need to remove the tube assembly and wiper wheels. They are filled with grease that dries out and gets stiff.

 

[JerryVV]

Several months!! It takes 15 minutes to remove and disassemble. If he didn’t find the issue in the motor, then you likely need to remove the tube assembly and wiper wheels. They are filled with grease that dries out and gets stiff.

Exactly, I did this on my TR4A (systems are basically the same) and it made a huge difference, my wipers now have distinct 2 speeds and work very well.

 

[TRopic6]

This may be worth a try. When I first got my TR6 it had been sitting for several decades. I pulled the wiper arms and marked the 12-o'clock position of the spindle. I then removed the motor and drive cable as one. The spindles had quite a lot of drag, so I carefully put a few drops of light oil behind the spindles and worked them back & forth so the oil would work down the shaft and loosen up any dried grease.

After cleaning and re greasing the motor and shaft, I rotated the spindles 180 degrees using the previous marks. This would hopefully move the start & return wear points (if there actually are any) to unworn portions of the spindle drive gear. The wipers worked fine and on the full rebuild, the complete drive assemblies were removed, cleaned, and oiled.

Jeff

 

[Dr_Mike]

I may as well tag on here with my own little problem: OK?
My motor (DR2) has two spade terminals, and it does not seem to matter which way I hook up the two wires. But it does not self park, and grounding it seems to make no difference . ( It does not have a ground terminal, and I tried various spots to ground it including the terminal on top of the"disc" which has the red wire attached.)
The car is a mongrel. TR2 dash, TR3A number, 60014, with body to match and TR4 transmission with overdrive. Probably a TR4 temperature sensor too. Harness from Roadster 20 years ago was for the body number so I had to cut off quite a few terminals. Changing polarity seems to have gone fine: ammeter now reads correctly. But I am bemused by the failure to park especially in our sometimes wet climate.

I think the wiper switch has no slow/fast function, just off/on. It was a used item.

( The heater motor was OK on the bench but now seems to have a short so I shall not be using it until I have fixed the rest of the car. It will not be any harder to get out then than now!)

Any suggestions?