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DR-2 Wiper motor rebuild

Tinkerman

Darth Vader
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Afternoon all, working on the wiper motor and ready to reassemble but was wondering what kind of grease would be the best to use in the gear motor sprocket case and ditto for the wheel box cable. What came out of the motor gear box was pretty bad but, I suppose after 50 years it's earned the right. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks, Tinkerman
 
I assume your talking about where the worm from the armature drives the gear and all the other stuff under the cover plate. I just used the same grease that I grease the suspension parts with. Wheel bearing grease just seemed a little too thick and fibrous for this application, although, I suppose it would be fine.
 
The wheel bearing grease was easier for me, so that's what I used. But then, the stuff I put in wheel bearings isn't noticeably different than what's in the gun, except for being in a tub instead of in the gun
grin.gif
 
This topic came up in the Spridget forum a month or so back and several people did not appreciate my suggestion... but here goes. Vaseline.

I was tired of slow wipers so I degreased the rack, the rack tube, and the wiper motor gears. I soaked the sintered motor bearings in 30W oil. I applied Vaseline to all the sliding and gear components. For the wheel boxes, I made cups from Caplugs and fit them over the wheelboxes (while installed on the car). I filled the Caplugs with 30W oil and let it wick in overnight. The reconditioned and re-lubed motor ran at the factory specified RPM and appeared to have more available power also once the wiper arms were fitted.

The argument given against Vaseline by some was the fear that it will run out of the motor in hot weather and after long running. Each time I've opened up a wiper motor I have found the factory grease packed around/under the gear with only a marginal layer of lube on the gear teeth themselves. Therefore, I anticipate that a thin layer of Vaseline will still be present and lube the gear surfaces suitably.

I wanted to present the argument against Vaseline so you could decide on your own. However, so far I'm pleased with the increased speed and power compared to previous rebuilds where I used wheel bearing grease. I should also mention that my motor rebuilds have been on the later DR-3 series and round body wiper motors.
 
You might want to try something like Sil Glyde....I used it on my speedo/tach cables and in the wiper motor on my 6.

Cheers,
M. Pied Lourd
 
Tomster said:
Won't vaseline (being petroleum based) eventually attack the rubber seals,
What rubber seals?
 
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