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TR2/3/3A Don't throw anything away.

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S

STeve 1958

Jedi Hopeful
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Last night I went through all my wiring and got everything to work except the windshield wipers which are always on. Short to ground I assume.
After trying for an hour to get the left rear turn signal to work I finally checked the bulb. Doh! It was burned out, so I dug through some old stuff and found a box of light bulbs that I purchased in 1974. If I can find the wiper short I'll finally have everything operational.

Steve
 
The wiper wiring shown in many diagrams is wrong for all but the earliest TR3s. If you have the wiper motor on the left, then the switch is supposed to ground terminal 1 to make the motor run continuously.

Find out which wire on the motor is hot, then disconnect the other one (which should be terminal 1). If it still runs, the problem is inside the motor. If not, problem is wiring to the switch. Possibly one of the under-dash modifications accidentally used the wire from the wiper motor as a power source.

Inside (well, mostly inside anyway) the motor, there is a wire that runs from terminal 1 over to the park switch on top of the wiper gearbox. (The park function works by grounding that terminal through a switch mounted on the gearbox.) On most motors, that wire runs through a hole in the motor housing and connects to the park switch on the outside. It may be grounded where it goes through the hole (which would make it run all the time). Or the park switch itself may be damaged, especially if you have the other style of motor.
 
Thanks Randall, I hadn't though of an internal short, that's tomorrow night job. Of course what do I need with windshield wipers since I don't yet have a rag top.

Steve
 
As long as you drive fast enough, the rain flies over your head. But you still kind of need to see where you are going!
I don't have a top either (it never rains in southern California), but there have been more than a few times I wished the wipers worked.
One time, I thought sure I was going to get a ticket for no wipers, but the cop just yelled I should get some Rain-X and drove on :smile:
That finally motivated me to install the motor and so on.

FWIW, I like the flexible wiper blades from an MGA much better than the rigid ones Triumph used. The MG blades follow the curve of the glass better, and are a direct replacement for the Triumph ones. Sorry I don't have a P/N handy, but you can find it on the Moss website.
 
I switched to the MGA wiper blades and they are much better than the original TR ones. They actually wipe off the windscreen. Moss part # 164-980.
 
Ya It never rains in Northern Ca. either. Problem is I'm moving to Florida next year.
I'll definitely need some new wiper blades if I ever get them working.
 
We moved from the Bay Area to Idaho. I had to get the wiper motor for the 250. Not so much for the rain but for the over spray of water from the farming fields.
 
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