Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Morgan 7” wiper blade

My LM62 has a taller windscreen to fit the hard top to (same as 4 seater apparently) so I will be ordering up a 120 Drive gear for wiper motor and will report back how they fit..

I remember I took ages cutting down some larger blades to maximise the wipe area and adjusted the arms etc and was well impressed with the result until the first time I tried them with the traditional hood up (9 stud fixings) and had to quickly adjust the wiper arms in the rain as they were fouling on the roof!!!!

Silly me for trying to use the hood whilst it was raining!!!!!!

BACKLASH: Is it only mine or do all Morgan wiper systems suffer with backlash. i.e. if I set my blades onto the splines in the parked position just kissing the bottom of the window frame, then operate them, they will park a cm or so up from the frame. Gently finger pressure on the blades will take up the play and restore them back to the original starting point. wet or dry makes little difference. Have lubed the shafts just below the splined heads. The flexi drive appears in good condition with no backlash on the motor driving gear.

If there's no play elsewhere are the spindle/wiper splines worn ? ..... if so the temporary 'bush' fix was always some tinfoil on the spindle before pushing the wipers on.

K

Yep, mine suffers, if you add up all the wobble & play in the blade, rivets & arm socket combined with the rubber blade drag that appears to explain it, if you lube the screen really well as a test, it almost disappears (mine are the CBS ones)

Thanks Jon for re-assurance and at least I am not alone. There is no obvious wear but I guessed as much that it might be an aggregate. I can live with it. Maybe when I next take the dash off for some reason, I’ll give the wheel boxes a lube for what it’s worth.
I recall when as a teenager, my 1954 Morris Minor would start sweeping the screen and gradually the wipers would make their way off screen, do the bonnet and back up to the screen again! (teeth worn on wheels, so it would slip a tooth at each swipe)

Get CBS telescopic/adjustable wiper arms. You state that you now are nowhere near the top of the screen. By elongating the arm so you are just a couple of mm away from the top, you might get rid of the overlap at the bottom. You could buy just one to try it out. If it works, get two more - if not, well - they are not expensive.

Good call - didn't realise they did them. Now on my wishlist (will have to wait until after payday!).

Only need two - mine has a two wiper set up.

Just checking on the 'process' for replacing the gear (in case there is a short cut!!).

I presume that you have to remove the motor intact with the spline driveshaft/springy after releasing the 'union nut' (leaving the tube in the car of course) - after removing the wiper arms to allow mounts to rotate freely!

Once the motor is detached then separate the gear following the very good video on the CBS website.

Reverse procedure to reassemble...??

I managed it by raising the header tank, tilting the motor assembly through 90 degrees. You cannot release the driveshaft unless you either first remove the gear wheel or remove the “con-rod” As the gear wheel had to come out anyway, I left the con rod alone.
CBS video is fine but do check the position of the white nylon cam that operates the park switch and compare it with your old one. My new one came for left hand parking. It is easily prised out and placed in the two vacant holes opposite on the back of the gearwheel.
Also, CBS use a circlip pliers but my circlip was plain and had to be prised away with a screwdriver (lost it twice!)
I made up a jig from wood to compress the spring washer together with a small woodworking cramp.

SORTED!

Wasn't that bad... I used an 11mm spanner to ease of the old circlip and I opted for the new washer kit from CBS and able to use Circlip Pliers and must have been a lot easier.

The result is great, as I finished the job I decided to fit the soft top to check clearance. Just as I finished that the heavens opened so I took a test drive and was very impressed!! (what we do for TMers!!!)

The clearance was around 5mm from the 9 pin hood and good sweep of screen (the 4/4 Le Mans uses a taller 4 seater screen to cope with hard top and screen height at centre is 10" (inside frame to inside frame).

Initially I wondered if a 115 deg may have been better as still touches the frame but seems to 'bed in' and OK.

Still frustrated that the drivers side blade has to be adjusted so short to get it to fit inside the screen edge that it misses a good chunk of the top of the sweep.... why they couldn't have moved the wiper shaft further 'in-board' is a mystery.

I look forward to my next trip in the rain!!