windshield wiper problems how to ...

...how to replace windshield wipers and things to check before shelling out for a new motor for car windscreen wipers.

car windscreen wipers

I fondly remember some windshield wiper problems from good few years ago — “No. I certainly won't tell you how many”,

We were travelling to Birmingham in some atrocious weather, when the windscreen wiper motor kindly took the finest moment to fail.

I can tell you — there was NO WAY you could see through the windscreen to keep driving to our destination. Raining cats and dogs it was!

I checked the linkages and everything seemed fused together pretty solidly. ARGGHHH!

Luckily help was at hand.

Because, by a stroke of luck, my long suffering wife was in the passenger seat — and she was about to experience — “first hand” — one of my greatest ideas!

My eyes had strayed to an old chamois leather — “Hey, that will do”— Said I

Now, try to imagine a system where one hand held a bit of old string. The string passed through the drivers window and continued to where it was tied to one corner of the old chamois leather.

The other hand held a newly liberated pantyhose which passed through the passenger window and tied to the other corner of the chamois — I had a sort of circuit! .

My wife became a reluctant, type of, “improvised wiper motor” BUT, we had a solution!

I was congratulating myself on my idea as we initially pulled away. With my wife swiftly pulling the string to the left and right — sweeshing water from the windscreen — already she was tiring fast.

At which point our old car exceeded 20 mph and the old saturated chamois leather shot over the roof ripping the rough twine through the wife ´s fingers

This was going to be a long ride home....But we enjoyed it in some hilarity!

Because sometimes in life, it's fun to be driving some wreck of a car!

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I managed to purchase a replacement from a breakers yard as I didn't feel the car deserved anything new.

Some time later, when, my wife could finally take no more. I resigned myself, one weekend, to replacing the motor which lived behind the firewall.

But what I discovered when I exposed the motor astonished me!

Half the wiring loom for the car had managed to get itself tangled into the most appalling knot around the drive shaft seizing it solid — Thanks Triumph (make of car). All I ever needed to have done was to undo three or four bolts and the problem could have beed solved in a jiffy!

So here are some “top tips” on windshield wiper problems to try before going for a replacement

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If the wiper motor runs but the wipers are not working the linkage has become disconnected or broken. You should hear the motor racing at a much higher than normal speed .

If the windscreen wipers do not work and the motor is dead you probably have an electrical fault — However before investing in a new motor try the connecting live and earth on a similar rated electrical item. At least you will know if the fault is in the wiring somewhere — unfortunately this scenario can be more of a headache to solve. Start simply by trying the earth by bridging the black earth wire directly to the cars body work.

As a general rule always try the simple things first.

Removing and checking switches and wiring behind the dashboard, only to find the fault was a simple corroded earth wire is not a pursuit to put you in the best humor!

A humming motor could have the linkage jammed as my example above — If the linkages are free you might need a new motor . You might get the motor serviced if the wiper mechanism is hard to come by — but if the car is fairly new you should be able to obtain a pre owned item from a breakers yard.

“Tommy Cooper ” I will have to do a search for more like this.

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