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I'm planning ahead and starting to scan eBay for some wiper bits.
I see Marlin fit a three wiper arms and blades system. And I've figured out the motor is a standard Lucas 14W two speed motor.
(SVC have a good article on their website.)
Does anyone know what drive gear should be fitted? (Apparantly they come in a range of 90 to 130 degrees) I'm guessing 90 or 95 degrees would be about right?
What angle drive gear comes in a standard mini motor?
I assume the wheel boxes are standard BL mini types?
What type of wheel boxes, 32 or 40 teeth?
I meant to find someone who'd installed them at Stoneleigh and ask them how they'd set it up. I can't see them moving very far up with the length of blade you get with it without shortening them.
I'll dig my bits out and see what I've got at some point soon
I'm planning ahead and starting to scan eBay for some wiper bits.
I see Marlin fit a three wiper arms and blades system. And I've figured out the motor is a standard Lucas 14W two speed motor.
(SVC have a good article on their website.)
Does anyone know what drive gear should be fitted? (Apparantly they come in a range of 90 to 130 degrees) I'm guessing 90 or 95 degrees would be about right?
What angle drive gear comes in a standard mini motor?
I assume the wheel boxes are standard BL mini types?
What type of wheel boxes, 32 or 40 teeth?
What type/size of arms and blades are suitable?
Any info out there?
thanks
Peter
I had a look at the few Sportsters with windscreen wipers and there seemed to be a variety of solutions. One of the guys that used three blades had taken one off as the motor was struggling to cope. So the best thing is to mock up what you want (blade positions and sweep angles) and then work it out from there. If you can get away with two this would seem the best solution.
I bought a brand new Lucas ww motor from Ebay for about £30 so there are some bargains if you look.
One other thing to keep in mind is that there are various different angles available at which the spindles can pass through the scuttle - dictated by the mounting bush.
Anybody know if they are 10" or 11" wiper blades used when fitting the three blade system fitted to some cars?
Peter
My guess is that's its up to the individual builder.
BTW At Stoneleigh last year I was talking to one of the guys that had used 3 blades and he had removed one of them as he found it overloaded the motor! My guess is that he was using too much pressure of the blade on the screen - but its worth thinking about.
I've started on fitting my windscreen wipers. I have a Lucas wiper motor and a 'Delta' rocker wiper switch.
I've been puzzling over the connection diagrams and had trouble finding one on the internet so after a lot of head scratching and buzzing out the switch connections put this one together.
The top part of the diagram is courtesy of S-V-C who have an excellent technical article about wiper motors.
I've heard that Lucas wiper motors are a little under powered (there was a more powerful motor fitted to, I think Triumph Stags, Jags, etc) so I am toying with the idea of using the E36 donor wiper motor and 3 modified Lucas wheelboxes.
If an arm was welded to the gear in the wheelbox, then a rod end could be fitted to drive the wiper via a push rod.
I wired up the BMW wiper control box in the build so the steering column stalks can be used which means I'd have intermittent wipe.
There's a lot of room under the scuttle for push rods and I think that this may be better than the Lucas set up.
The jury is still out.
If I remember correctly, Lucas wipers can wear quickly if not greased and can give you juddery, noisy wipers and wiper parking problems. Especially if the drive tubes have sharp bents in them.
I used to have a old Jag which used a Lucas motor and had a lot of slack in the wheelboxes and drive spring.
This meant that if the screen was a bit dry the wipers would park half way up the screen and if wet, they would slap the windscreen rubber.
If anybody has a alternative to the Lucas system, I'm listening.
I have used the Lucas system before on a previous kit car - never had any problems and it was my daily driver for two years. Perhaps the Lucas system does get worn out after many years of use - but how often are you going to drive the Sportster when it is raining?
I've started on fitting my windscreen wipers. I have a Lucas wiper motor and a 'Delta' rocker wiper switch.
I've been puzzling over the connection diagrams and had trouble finding one on the internet so after a lot of head scratching and buzzing out the switch connections put this one together.
The top part of the diagram is courtesy of S-V-C who have an excellent technical article about wiper motors.
The cable colours are Premier Wiring loom.
I haven't tested it yet so, any comments?
thanks
Peter
Peter
Looks OK to me. If you are at all unsure just put a temporary lowish rating fuse in the live before you try it!
I've heard that Lucas wiper motors are a little under powered (there was a more powerful motor fitted to, I think Triumph Stags, Jags, etc) so I am toying with the idea of using the E36 donor wiper motor and 3 modified Lucas wheelboxes.
If an arm was welded to the gear in the wheelbox, then a rod end could be fitted to drive the wiper via a push rod.
I wired up the BMW wiper control box in the build so the steering column stalks can be used which means I'd have intermittent wipe.
There's a lot of room under the scuttle for push rods and I think that this may be better than the Lucas set up.
The jury is still out.
If I remember correctly, Lucas wipers can wear quickly if not greased and can give you juddery, noisy wipers and wiper parking problems. Especially if the drive tubes have sharp bents in them.
I used to have a old Jag which used a Lucas motor and had a lot of slack in the wheelboxes and drive spring.
This meant that if the screen was a bit dry the wipers would park half way up the screen and if wet, they would slap the windscreen rubber.
If anybody has a alternative to the Lucas system, I'm listening.
Hi Rob,
thanks for the interesting feedback. The common Lucas motor is 14 Watt and they did do a 16W one but apparantly they are no longer available new.
I've already bought the Lucas wiper motor (14w) and wheel boxes so i'll be going with that option but i'll make sure the drive shafts are as straight as possible and well greased up. I'm using all new parts so hopefully won't have too many problems. The Marlin has very short wiper blades so the amount of friction and weight should be a lot less than Jag wiper blades which I imagine are quite large?
As Robin says, kit car wipers will only be used occasionally compared to a regular daily drive so wear should be minimal for many years.
I found an old rag and some screen spray works pretty well
I've got the full lucas wiper system as supplied by Marlin to install at some point soon. I've yet to think about the wiring for it.
Hi Patrick,
if you have a spare moment, could you pop the lid off the wiper motor gearbox and let me know what Gear wheel is fitted. It'll be stamped with a number like 95 or 105.
I sorted all of the wiring for it while we were building the car. Since we are using a BMW style set-up for the wiring, I remember adding an extra relay to operate the park function (this works differently on the BMW.) I can sort out a wiring diagram how I did this when we take scuttle off to mount the wiper motor; if anyone needs the info.
We have the kit for a 3 wiper set-up, I plan to start by measuring the amount of rotation. The quick test I did at the weekend showed they move over 90 degrees.
We may need to shorten the wiper blades to get them to fit into the window.
I've fitted the wiper wheel boxes today and can confirm that you need a 90/95 degree gearbox and you do have to shorten the wiper blade arms.
You also have to bend them to get the blades at the right angle
I've stuck a load of pictures on my Flickr site....
Had a look our wiper moves 110 degrees, so looks as though we will need to find a different gear box.. wooo
If you can fit the wiper blades as near to the passenger side of the car as possible and with very little gap between them, you might get a slighltly larger arc. You can also go slightly higher up the screen but I sit quite low in my car so tend to be looking through the lower half of the windscreen so I have mounted my blades as low down as I can.
I can move mine to the right by extending the arms but that moves them up the screen as well.
As Mike suggest you could go a little closer to the screen but my middle wheel box is only a few mm away from the rubber strip.
I drilled my spindle holes 12cm from the edge of the dashboard edge of scuttle at the top of the 'eyebrows' (if you know what I mean?) However, this also depnds on where exactly you cut the slots for the windscreen so that may vary from car to car.
I would have assumed that Marlin would have supplied a motor and gearbox with the right ratio? I bought mine off eBay so was expecting to have to change the wheel.
I spoke to the man at S_V_C this morning.
From his records, he says that the Sportster should have a wheel marked 100 although he also said the markings of gear wheels don't directly relate to the angle of sweep. I've ordered one and he has agreed to swap if not correct.
He suggested I trialing it without the arms and blades fitted to start with which seems very good advice!
Maybe we do have the correct gear. I plan to draw a chart and calculate the area the wipers will cover before shortening anything.
As mentioned above I will need to short the wiper arms a little to get them to fit inside the window. At the moment the wipers would go way over the top of the screen.
