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BE Wipers are exactly reversed

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msoylemez

msoylemez

Jedi Trainee
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My wipers are doing exactly the opposite of what they should be doing.

Specifically, when I turn the wiper motor on, the wipers go DOWN and then rebound back to the starting point. Of course, given how the wipers are on the windshield (already in the down, stowed position), this means they are trying to go DOWN and onto the body if you will, as opposed to UP and across the windshield like they should.

What did I do wrong fellas? What's the fix? I tried to be crafty and swap the two non-ground wires at the motor, but this caused a short. Not so crafty am I, I guess.
 
Sounds like you re-polarized the motor and it is running backwards!
 
Did you remove and replace the wheelbox/rack/tube assembly? It's possible to reassembly the wheelbox on the wrong side of the rack to get 180 degrees out of whack. hehe .. rack out of whack .. is that technical or what? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
 
I like the sound of that John, and that is a possibility I had not thought of, but very likely, and easy to remedy!!
...rack out of whack...hehehe /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
 
John Loftus: YES! That has to be it. I did completely restore/rebuild the whole system (motor, rack, tube, wheel boxes) and I bet the rack is on the wrong side of the wheel in the wheel box (so it should be on the opposite side of whatever side its on now). Can someone confirm that logic, please?

Also, as an aside...what are the chances that in every situation where I had 2 choices to install something--one correct way and one incorrect way (see above example)--I always seemed to choose the incorrect way first? I wasn't a stats major, but I thought the odds would have had me at 50/50, right?

WRONG!
 
I will confirm, that is logical.

Not according to Murphy's Law it's not 50/50, it's 99.99%!!Hehehe!!
 
When I restored my wiper rig I put it together on the bench, tested it and went to install it. Couldn't figure out why it was being such a pain to get back in so I just kept at it. It finally occured to me that the wheel boxes might be on the wrong side. Yes, Murphy has better than 50/50 odds of showing up to the party /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
 
You know that's the kind of thing I do. Again and again and again.
 
Yep Jack, that old Murphy is everybodys' buddy and he will hang out and party as long and often as he can!!
 
The rack cable runs on the BOTTOM of the wheel boxes.
It the rack is on the bottom of the wheels, you might just have the wiper arms on in the wrong spot.
Pop off the arms, switch on the wipers, watch where the wheels stop before they start back up. You may just have the bottoms up.
 
spritenut said:
The rack cable runs on the BOTTOM of the wheel boxes.
It the rack is on the bottom of the wheels, you might just have the wiper arms on in the wrong spot.
Pop off the arms, switch on the wipers, watch where the wheels stop before they start back up. You may just have the bottoms up.
Click to expand...

As Spritenut says, the wipers are in the wrong place on the shafts, also the park position is wrong - they are parking in roughly the opposite end of the sweep to where they should.

Although it's possible that you have the wheels boxes on upside down, you will still get the same angle of sweep - it won't make them wipe backwards.

Take the wipers off,loosen the top of the motor so you can rotate the can and gradually rotate it until the shafts stop at the 'down' end of their travel (this is fully clockwise or fully anticlockwise - depends if you are L or R hand drive).

Then you can put the arms back on - maybe do a test by putting a bit of card or tape on the shaft to check the position is right before risking bending the arms/scratching the scuttle.

Does that make sense?

John
 
john_j,

I'll try your recommendation first, as it seems a bit easier than getting to the wheelboxes now that the dash and everything else is in there.

Thanks!
 
john_j said:
Although it's possible that you have the wheels boxes on upside down, you will still get the same angle of sweep - it won't make them wipe backwards.
Click to expand...

John, on a split windshield with the wipers moving in the 'clapping hands' configuration, the way to set that up is to rotate one of the wheel boxes 180 degrees. So, one motor, one rack, yet both wipers traveling in different directions. A quick peek under the dash should make it easy to determine if the tube is on the bottom (correct) or on the top (wrong).

Cheers,
John
 
John Loftus said:
on a split windshield with the wipers moving in the 'clapping hands' configuration,
Click to expand...

Ah, yes, but..... Sprites don't have a 'clapping hand' set up they have a 'not clapping hand' set up - the 2 arms stay parallel.

John
 
John Loftus said:
on a split windshield with the wipers moving in the 'clapping hands' configuration,
Click to expand...

Ah, yes, but..... Sprites don't have a 'clapping hand' set up they have a 'not clapping hand' set up - the 2 arms stay parallel.

John
 
john, I'm well aware of that <sigh>. Just pointing out an example of what happens when a single wheel box is flipped upside down since you stated that it won't make them wipe backwards. In this case I believe both wheel boxes are upside down making them both 'wipe backwards'. No big deal, though .. I'm frequently misunderstood .. as Rodney D. liked to say, "I get no respect .. no respect" /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

BTW, here's a link to some good British wiper system info .. just click on the Wiper button on the sidebar.

https://www.s-v-c.co.uk/

Cheers,
John
 
OK, here's my final attempt to explain.

Imagine the car with the wiper arms off, stand in front of the car, wheel boxes on the right way up. Turn the motor on.

The 'spring' goes back and forth and the wiper spindles rotate one way then the other, through about 120 degrees (can't remember the exact figure but it's around there).

Now imagine the same again with the wheel boxes upside down. The spindles still rotate 120 degrees.

(You might argue that in one case they go clockwise then anticlockwise, but by moving the park position you can make either set up go clock/anti or anti/clock.)

SO, put the arms on so that they sweep the screen not the bonnet, then adjust the park switch so that they park at the bottom.
 
Roger the above.
 
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