Screen wipers left or right parking

Okay, I'm probably missing something obvious. When the shop put my car back together they put in a new wiper motor. I'm sure that the wipers parked to the right when I first got it, but now they park to the left and don't seem to clear the screen properly. I remember them going all the way up to the left edge of the screen but now they just clear two half-circles a the bottom of the screen. And they come down at an odd angle on the right. So what's going on? I know that the wiper arms come "handed" and the ones I have are the left hand type. I suspect the shop mistakenly replaced my wiper arms with a different set, and I can get a set of right handed ones, but how do I make the motor park to the right like it did before? There don't seem to be right or left hand motors, only one for both. ??

Hi red riley!
Does your motor self park, or is it one that stops wherever the wipers are when you flick the switch to off?

The wipers on early cars parked on the left as per the later Mini variants and the later cars parked on the right (left and right when sitting in the car). Look at the images taken by Tony at the Malvern show over the weekend. His Blue and White Elf is a 1964 car where as the other 3 cars are all Mk3 variants and the wipers park the other way. Why BMC did this I don't know but it may help to answer your question.

Andrew

Before


Now


It does have the self parking feature. Does the parking switch on the motor have to do with which way it parks?

It was my understanding that the wipers are parked on the drivers side. This is so the that the first movement of the wipers moves water away from and not into the drivers vision. My RHD Elf wipers park on the right and my LHD MGA wipers park on the left. The self parking feature is adjustable.

I can't find anything about it my Haynes or Auto book, so can anyone explain to me how to adjust the self park feature?

Red Riley wrote:how do I make the motor park to the right like it did before? There don't seem to be right or left hand motors, only one for both. ??

If i remember correct on the later motors you could turn the pinion on the big plastic wheel around by 180 degrees which has the effect of parking them the other way. You also need to make sure the mechanism is in the correct holes on the scuttle panel so the arms are located in the correct position. To turn the pinion around, you need to remove the motor and strip out the big gear wheel assembly. Can't quite remember how (was about 20 yrs ago) but the plastic will separate from the metal and will turn around. Not sure if it is the same for the earlier square motors though. Had this problem on the pickup and I managed to resolve it but changing the pinion position

Hope this helps a bit

If it did not have the self park bit, it would have simply been turning off the motor at its full wipe sweep, (blades in the drivers vision) and changing over the blades, with the other wiper set in the park position, (180 degrees off) then starting the motor again! voila!! this method may work, but im not sure. however, i know a man that will know! he is on www.specialistminiforums.com/ and he has an electrical help page! top bloke.

Elf Service wrote:The wipers on early cars parked on the left as per the later Mini variants and the later cars parked on the right (left and right when sitting in the car). Look at the images taken by Tony at the Malvern show over the weekend. His Blue and White Elf is a 1964 car where as the other 3 cars are all Mk3 variants and the wipers park the other way. Why BMC did this I don't know but it may help to answer your question.

Andrew

Andrew.... Mine's a '68 and park the same way as Tony's '64. It was my understanding that all Elf & Hornet models parked the same as Mk1 Mini, Pickups and Vans. But, like a man in orthopaedic shoes... (to coin my favourite phrase)... I stand to be corrected!

Jase

Personally I like the way my wipers operate ie when up they wipe almost parallel to the pillar giving me a larger swept area in top right corner (when sitting in car). If the other way round they would leave me with an unswept top R/H corner and less clear vision. With me so far? ! The holes in my bulhead are same distance from both sides of car. So can park both ways (as Red Riley's car.)

The reason for the left or right park was to allow the wiper blades to park out of the drivers sight line and then when they sweep the screen they would wipe as close to the pillar giving the widest sweep possible.

I know this is not the answer Red Riley is looking for. I'll try and solve that later! (my 3 year old grand daughter keeps tapping the keyboard and causing havoc at the moment! )

I know this is an old thread, but thought I'd add to this discussion as (for once) I think I know what happened.

It sounds as though when your wipers were re-fitted they put the ferrule (the long spring from the wiper motor) on the wrong side of your wheel boxes. If the ferrule is on the top of the wheel boxes, it will 'push' the wipers, whereas if it is below then the wipers will be 'pulled'.

If you remove your wheelboxes and spin them round 180 degrees (spin the rubber round) and refit, your wipers should park the other way.

Lots of people use a mini wiper setup with the kit car I built, and have the wheel boxes setup so each wiper parks on the opposite side of the car, and meet - or 'clap' in the middle.

Hope this makes sense. Wish I had some diagrams....

Stephen

Then of course there is the question, is your car left hand drive or right hand drive? I believe the wipers on ALL Elf's and Hornets should "land" and come to rest (or park) pointing in the direction away from the steering wheel. To the left on R/H Drive, and to the right on L/H drive....

Jase

So here's the problem I have at present. The wipers not only don't clear up the to the edge of the screen, they don't even clear the entire screen properly. The off side (with LHD) wipe comes down at an odd angle at full wipe and doesn't come up to the edge anymore. It didn't make sense to me that they parked on the right when the car was RHD, but it would have been the proper setup after the conversion. Only now I have the same problem only more so. I don't know why they changed it around when they put it back together. I looked at the wiper motor on a friend's MGB and it has a cam on the gear inside the motor housing that can be swapped around to the opposite side. I'm hoping that the motor on my Elf has the same thing, but I haven't gotten around yet to taking it apart.

Brian. the top pic should have the wipers the other way round as mine are to clear the top left corner (as you look at the car from the front) this way I have a full clear view straight ahead full depth of screen

Exactly, Tony! But as you see this is how they were originally, opposite of yours, which would be perfect for a LHD car, although my car was originally RHD! Very confusing, eh? I've just got to get them back to the way they were to start, then I'd be a happy camper.

I admit that I do not know the specifics of the "Riley/Mini" wiper motor, but it appears to be like the one I rebuilt on my MGA. The park position on that wiper was easily moved by rotating the position of the internal ground contact on the motor/gearbox. See: http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/electric/et111.htm .

Your wiper motor/gearbox may be different but it should adjust in some kind of similar manner.

Jim

[quote="Red Riley"]Exactly, Tony! But as you see this is how they were originally, opposite of yours, which would be perfect for a LHD car, although my car was originally RHD! Very confusing, eh? I've just got to get them back to the way they were to start, then I'd be a happy camper.

Brian.Just thought on
I have a wiper motor somewhere dismantled. I have a feeling it is a simple solution.
I will have a search for it today and get some photos for you.

TONYELF wrote:That would leave a dirty corner at top right of screen for me whereas my wipers sweep right up the A pillar giving me a clear view. Think about it! Jase

I know what I meant! Just tired when I typed it!! lol I have edited my comment to be clearer as to what I was trying to say!

Red Riley wrote:Exactly, Tony! But as you see this is how they were originally, opposite of yours, which would be perfect for a LHD car, although my car was originally RHD! Very confusing, eh? I've just got to get them back to the way they were to start, then I'd be a happy camper.

Now, having lost all credibility thanks to Tony pointing out the error of my tiredness on my previous post (lol), I will add that when you convert RHD to LHD you can't simply changeover the wiper set up to match. The spindles have to be moved a couple of inches in the scuttle panel also. On most innocenti Mini's for example, you will find rubber blanking gromits in the alternative spindle holes. I believe also that the mechanism of the wiper motor that drives the spindles has to be adjusted also (I only know this because a former neighbour had all sorts of problems when doing his conversion)

Jase

LOL Jase, you just lost more credibilty there! The wiper gear boxes are exactly the same distance from either side of my Elf ! Maybe you are referring to the Mk3 ?

Oh my giddy Aunt! I think I've just hit on what the problem is. As Tony pointed out, the holes (only two, not four) on the Elf are the same distance from either end of the scuttle. They are on my MKIII at any rate. So logically one would imagine that the four holes on a Mini are spaced differently than the Elf, so requiring different length wiper arms. I have sets of of right and left hand Mini wipers, and on trying them just now, none of them reach the edge of the screen, no matter which way I position them. I've got the wrong bloody arms! Does anyone have access to a proper set of Elf arms and a set of Mini arms to compare side by side to verify my theory? I called the shop and they did recall that they had a problem with the parking position so may have substituted a different set of arms, but a year later, they have no memory of what might have become of the originals. Bollocks!

As I was reading this thread I was going to say everything Red has just said. The mini arms are longer, but I can't measure them now as they are in my mum's garage.

The screen area cleared by my Elf wipers is a pair of semi circles from the bottom corners of the screen that overlap in the middle. Neither of the top corners of the screen are touched by the wipers.

I have a slightly different issue as my wipers go too far. They start from the rubber on the left side, but come down to almost touch the scuttle on the right side.

I've just logged on after finding my spare motor (sorry Brian no spare arms) I had noticed you have the correct arms for the way they lie in the parked position as you have them NOW.
I took the cover off the spare motor for photo (more notes below photo)

There is another hole for the "cranking " arm which would not make that much difference which made me think that with the arms you have on now, you would not get the satisfactory solution you require. It then occured to me that the garage must have substituted them.
You should be able to work out if the correctly shaped arms will do the trick.
There is no difference between the minis and the Elfs and Hornets arms whichever way they are cranked.
Hope you get yourself "straight" once more SOON!

RobBFG. It sounds as if your gearboxes are worn or the arms need re setting on the splines