Windscreen Wiper motor advice

[Issug987]

I'm looking to buy a new windscreen wiper motor, although they are readily available, it looks like the £50 - £70 ones are copies and the genuine Lucas ones are £200+. Without actually physically holding and looking at the two, does anyone have experience of the cheaper copies and are they any good?

[Vic Butler]

Go for the proper one.
Buy cheap, buy (at least) twice.
What quality would you put on an item made the other side of the world, shipped to the UK then sold for £70 or so?

[Ian F]

I think Vic is on the right track, but remember any "Lucas" one will be either original and probably worn, or reconditioned with parts from guess where? So any reconditioning will depend really on who does it and what parts are used.
The holy grail of course is a new old stock item which has been sitting on a dusty shelf in some garage for many decades......

Ian F

[Issug987]

I have come across a mini website that sells a uk made 14W, new but using the original tooling, no mention of the manufacturer name, any ideas?

[Rommel]

Have you taken the existing one apart to see what is wrong ? chances are it is just the brushes that may need replacing. or if you can find a electrical motor repair shop get them to look at it. Not sure where you are but there is a very good one in Burghfield near Reading Berkshire that are very good.

[Issug987]

Good advice but I need to explain, the one fitted to the car is serviceable, I'm after another to mount on a rig so that I can take some electrical measurements and simulate various loads. I'm making a controller for the wipers, I originally had the hand pump for the washer, but changed that to an electric pump, but now I've decided to automate the washer so it will do both 'normal' squirt but also a preprogrammed cycle with the wipers. Once done ill keep the motor as a spare so I was just looking for a good quality one, I did consider a second hand one, but you often don't know what you are getting so anyone who has fitted a new one to help me in the right direction. Thanks

[Not_Anumber]

Programmable as in single wipe & interval delay or rain sensing ?

[Issug987]

Hi, the plan at the moment is to keep the existing switches, so the three position rocker will function as normal, the water wash button if momentarily pressed (less than 0.5 second) will do a single or perhaps two wipes at full speed, if you press for more than 0.5 seconds perhaps a cycle of say squirt water, wipe a couple of times, wait a few seconds, than wipe again. If the wipers are already running slow or fast, the wash button will just act as normal. I'm not sure of the exact procedure yet, once the control unit is built you have full control to do anything you want, it is just seeing what works best, so happy for any suggestions...I did consider also the wash push-button selecting intervals for the slow speed setting, just can't find a period looking button at the moment.

[Not_Anumber]

Invisibly adding the control logic whilst keeping the existing switchgear should be a good challenge.
I remember doing a very basic version once on a 1970's Fiat by running a diode from the washer's +v feed over to the wiper motor's slow speed wire so it always gave a wipe when washing the screen. Im consious that cant be applied to some MGBs though as some, especially later Bs have the washer fed by a permanent live so it's the earth that is switched.

Ive had to tackle MGB wiper wiring recently as I needed to move over to using MGF stalks as part of the DIY EPAS conversion. Interestingly, other than a need to swap over the + live and - negative feed wires all the switched outputs were the same as on a late MGB stalk. As the new stalk also had a position for intermittent wipe I added a propritary timer circuit and a dpdt changeover relay to provide that function. There was a variable delay control on the PCB which ive shifted onto a flying lead so I can discretely mount it in place of the dash light dimmer.

[GrahamF]

Is it a DR3A or a 14W motor ?