Screen wipers are a bit of a challenge at the best of times in a coupe but with the fitting of a sunroof, it becomes even more so. There is just no room to mount a motor, along with all the arms etc. required.
Many Rodders in Australia use the English cable drive system as it is very compact and lends itself to the fitting of the motor in the trunk or elsewhere. In my case, the Engineer requires 3 wipers and finding the drive boxes proved to be a problem. These wiper boxes are pretty old now and in virtually every car I checked they were either damaged, worn out or already missing (perhaps to another Rodder!
The blue area is the coverage of each wiper blade I need. With the arms as shown (red) the result should be a good overlap and most of the screen wiped plus a nice park position up under the sun shield. This is a front view of my (right hand drive) windscreen.
Eventually, a friend Bill (32 Tudor) tracked down some NOS parts. There were only 5 available and we snapped them up. I still need the cable and motor but these should be easier to find.
These are the three, new boxes I bought. A special cable with a sort of "thread" on it, passes through these boxes and the to and fro motion from the motor, on a wheel on the end of the shaft, operates the wipers.
I will cover fitting these later on.
Wiper motor (Suzuki 4x4)
When setting up the wiper arms using the cable boxes and motor that I have, I discovered that the wiper arm angle of rotation was about 115 degrees. This is too much for this setup and would result in the drivers side arm running over the screen pillar. Not good! Also, the blades interfered with the top of the screen frame.
A method of reducing the rotation to 90 degrees is needed. Initial thoughts were to use an intermediate type of "gear box" to reduce the cable stroke from the motor drive, but now I have decided to make the arm of the wiper motor adjustable, to get the required stroke.
Adjusting the arm will then reduce the to and fro motion of the output cable, thus reducing the wiper angle to the desired 90 degrees.
Oct 2001 Here is how I have fitted up the wiper mechanism to the panel above the windscreen. This is a new homemade panel with the front section vertical. The original panel on an A model has this section projecting forward at an angle. This places a lot of force on the wiper arms so the panel was changed. There will be three wiper arms and the pivot mechanisms have been spaced about 12.5" apart. Each of the mechanisms is joined by a solid tube pic on (right) in which the flexible cable runs. A little grease will be added when finished.
This rod is being built RH drive of course. The cable will run to the left side of the car and into the trunk where the motor will be located.
JAN 2005: I was always unhappy about mounting it here, close to the tank and decided to move it further back in the trunk, and may enclose it as well. These are the old pictures. New location will be shown shortly. These old pictures show the motor in the trunk, while the pic on right shows the motor from inside the car. Note the tube above it. This tube will carry the cable from the front of the car.
THIS IS NOW CHANGED. THE MOTOR HAS BEEN MOVED AND A SIMPLE MECHANISM TO CONVERT THE CABLE MOTION TO A STANDARD WIDSCREEN WIPER CIRCULAR MOTION HAS BEEN MADE.
A small bracket secures the cable over the door.
The cable installation is now finished and this page will be LATER !