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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - Wiper self parking

The self parking wipers have just packed up on my factory V8 so that I have to stop the wipers manually when they are get to the rest position. The car is fitted with an aftermarket rheostat fitted under the dash on the right which is of indeterminate age but was very useful for varying the wiper delay speed and overrode the wiper function. If this turns out to be a fault on the motor (which I suspect) is there a spare part that can be fitted or is it a case of a new motor??
Martin

Martin,
The V-8 uses the same 2-speed wiper motor as a 4-cylinder GT. The self parking system consists of a nylon wedge on the wiper motor gear that depresses a microswitch mounted to the wiper motor gearbox. This is a pretty bulletproof system (about the only thing I have seen go wrong is the original grease in the gearbox goes solid and jams the microswitch). I would suspect that your problem lies in the wiring to that aftermarket rheostat. I would bet that the rheostat is spliced into the self parking circuit, so I would first see if all your connections are secure. If the self-parking system turns out to be faulty, you probably need to buy a secondhand motor to obtain another microswitch. You would probably pay more for a "Lucas Service Part" (if it were still available) than you would for a breaker's yard motor.

There is a manual entitled "Lucas Fault Diagnosis" that delineates a procedure for testing the Lucas 2-speed wiper motors. If you can get hold of that, it has a very simple procedure for checking all functions of the wiper motor, including the self parking system.

Cheers,
Paul Kile
Paul Kile

Martin,

Matbe this site will help.

http://www.vtr.org/maintain/wiper-motor/

Dan Masters

Martin,

I had the same problem on my '74 B when I restored it a while back. While I had the windshield motor out, I took it apart and other than cleaning and changing the old grease and making sure everything was where it was supposed to be, I didn't add any new parts.

When it went back into the car I was pleasantly surprised to see the wipers now parked on their own.

Wish I could be more specific but maybe that's all you need to do.

Cheers
Simon
Simon Austin

OK thanks for all the advice fellas - should help me to sort it out. Unfortunately it is one of those annoying faults that I'm always going to 'do tommorrow'
'cause if it isn't raining I tend to forget about it!
Will keep you posted.
Martin

With mine the problem was in the switch itself, these are available from the MGOC, at least. Once you have access to the motor the various wires from the loom and to the brushes pull off the switch, and the switch itself slides forward in the same direction as you pulled the loom wires off, it is only held on by a spring-clip. Having said that it is not uncommon for flick and intermittent wipe systems to interrupt the park wire (light-green/brown) so I would check this first.
Paul Hunt

Correction. The loom spades are on one side of the block and the brush spades on the other. Slide the switch/connector block towards you along its long axis.
Paul Hunt

I have a wiper problem as well. BUT Mine is a touch different in that they would not STOP even when the switch was off. Almost seamed like it was going past the switch too fast? I had it stop working completely at one point and took it apart to lube the motor and must have goofed something up. Doe the link about talk about opening up and working on the motor/gearing assembly? I would like to pull the motor and gear assembly out and repack it.

Any ideas?
Larry Embrey

This thread was discussed between 10/02/2003 and 14/02/2003

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