Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Windscreen wipers

Hi Everyone,

Bit of useless info from my personal maintenance log. Ages ago I got fed up with the windscreen wiper blades falling off the bottom of the windscreen. Remedial action was required...


PART A
The sweep of my wipers was 130 degrees (the norm I believe), controlled by the wiper drive gear within the wiper motor. A replacement gear was necessary.

I determined 115 or 120 degrees would be better but my local supplier (Leacy) only had 105 degrees at the time which I took for about a tenner. Fitting was very straight forward if a little messy due to the grease. But, replacing the bottom circlip is a “b*****.

The result is excellent though 115 degrees would probably be even more excellent.

PART B
Whilst fitting I noticed a nasty gouge in the stainless below the wiper motor and realised the wiper motor gear wheel shaft was actually sitting on the stainless, bumping or grinding out of sight.

Altering the attitude of the motor is difficult due to (a) the angle of the drive cable and (b) the cooling system expansion tank sitting right on top of the wiper motor U bracket.

Temporarily I fitted a small stainless plate to act as a bearing surface and although I planned to do a more permanent fix I must admit I never did. At every service I inspect and change the plate if necessary (2 so far!)

I hope the picci explains; the “temporary” plate is beneath the yellow wire.

So, no annoying wipers and one less rattle and bang

I hope this helps someone

Interesting. My wiper blade on the driver side fell off at the end of a sweep on the way to the FolkMog AGM. When we stopped c 30 miles later I found it on the running board.
The whole set up is poor & I am amazed that MMC persists with it. I guess it is cheap. Fortunately for me the arm didn't scratch the screen & after adjusting the spring clip the blade hasn't come loose again.

The main limitation of the wipers on the trad Morgan is the extremely low height of the screen. To fix this would need a complete redesign of the car which would probably involve moving the base of the screen further forward and inclining it more, perhaps even ( ) using a slightly curved screen. This would increase the possible length of the wiper blades. The current length is, if I recall, 7" but to get some sort of modern blade it would be necessary to go to at least 10" if not 12". These are sizes that are generally only used at the rear on modern vehicles but there are some modern blades available which could be suitable.

The other issue on trad Morgans is that Morgan, in a very lazy way, make the position of the spindles exactly the same for left hand drive and right hand drive vehicles. The spindles should be offset towards the driver's side and the blades should park flat towards the passenger side. At the end of its stroke the driver's side blade should be vertical and virtually next to the windscreen pillar. This would leave the least obstructed view for the driver.

I note that the wipers on the PlusSix are offset in the way I have described so perhaps after more than 60 years of producing the round cowl shape they have worked out the need for some improvement in the driver's wet weather view.

http://www.talkmorgan.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/608551/1
This thread deals with a 8" inch wiper from Car Builder Solutions, https://www.carbuilder.com/uk/stainless-steel-sprung-windscreen-wiper-blade-8, so just one inch in excess. Easy to cut some mm of the outer end, so no conflict with the upper metal edge of the windscreen. They do touch the lower edge though, but so does the original wipers seemingly with no harm as just rubber touches the metal. You could perhaps cut a couple of mm here too, but not so much that it will make a difference. I ordered one to try it out, cut it and put it on yesterday. Seems to work ok (at least in the garage...) so I will order two more. They have a tight fit to the wiper arm, so I do not see how they can come loose.

Hi Robbie,

Yes, an interesting thread on blades which I bookmarked at the time. Cross referring the details with my thread/car..........
With the original 130 gear my 7" blades swept 50mm from top frame but dropped off the lower frame by about 7mm on full sweep (driver side).
With the 105 gear no change at top but 25mm clearance from blade bottom to frame. This is why a gear about 120 would be even better allowing more sweep and still allowing frame clearance using 7" blades.

But Cooperman's (and probably CBS) excellent mod 8" blades would be perfect with my 105 gear with no cutting down and will be used when I replace my blades.

I must stress these details apply to my car with a drop down windscreen. I'm reliably told however it's the same screen and rake as "ordinary"cars.

Hello Salmo,
how can the different gears affect the distance between the outer end of the wiper blade and the top of the frame? At the bottom yes - depending of the gears and how far the wiper goes before it returns, but the top - really? Anyway, you cut if you need to, it is quite easy. I would change them right away, they clean the screen much better than the original ones. About the gears, these are the ones you can get from CBS: https://www.carbuilder.com/uk/wiper-gears. Do they look like the ones you put in? In other words, from your experience and the look of the pictures, do you think they could be compatible with the OEM wiper motor? (Of ourse I could ask CBS directly, but...) If so I might change the gears, if not and I would have to change the motor as well, I think I will let it be. And is 120 degrees the angle you reommend?

105 degrees recommended, I meant to ask....

Hi Robbie,

Firstly apologies. I misread my rough notes. The distance from blade to screen frame should read 30mm at top of sweep.

You are quite right, whatever distance you have at the top will remain no matter what gear is used (providing the blade length is not altered). And yes, the bottom distance decreases as the sweep is increased.

Recommendations. If I'm pushed and strictly E &OE...
For 7" blades I'm sure 120 is ok but 115 gives a bit of tolerance.
For 8" blades 105 is clearly ok. There is tolerance but I don't have the drawing skills to plot and measure the bottom position of the blade as the sweep increases.Not forgetting of course the end sweep position will also change with the blade position on the spindle.

The 105 gear from Leacy is no 37H3045.
CBS seem to be the same item

Is that ok?

If you want a piccie of 105 blade positions let me know.

Regards

I located the item at Leacy's website, thank you. I undestand the gear is compatible with the original motor (which might be Lucas? - I will check) correct? Yes, I would very much like a picture of the 105 setup. If you please, I would like the photo(s) to include both the bottom distance to the frame and how far the wiper reaches out on the passenger side at the maximum position. Ah, the wonderful world of morganeering and it's helpful community.Tweaking, tweaking.....
Cheers!

I located the item at Leacy's website, thank you. I undestand the gear is compatible with the original motor (which might be Lucas? - I will check) correct? Yes, I would very much like a picture of the 105 setup. If you please, I would like the photo(s) to include both the bottom distance to the frame and how far the wiper reaches out on the passenger side at the maximum position. Ah, the wonderful world of morganeering and it's helpful community.Tweaking, tweaking.....
Cheers!