Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Adjusting the wiper blades/arms to stop judder ?

I tried everything to stop the blades going over the edges, even changed the wheel in the wiper motor - no success. The drawing for a "parallel mechanism" (pantograph) must still be somewhere...

Against the judder - and the scratching of the glass by the metal on the wiper blade !! - I stretched the springs of the arms until the blades touched the glass only lightly; also not good because they nearly lift off at high speed.

Frank

Thanks Bodger, you have confirmed what I suspected, it is not possible to stop the blades going over the edge of the frame.

I think if I can minimise the slop at the blade pivots and the arm connections it may help.

I have already squared the arms to the screen etc, with little improvement.

This car is only 2 months old, the design of the screen wiping system is very primitive.

Err,
Only the screen wiping system???

It's the simplicity (or primitiveness) that I love about them
But I suppose in excess of 35 years with Land Rovers might have left certain traits in my psyche

Cheers,

Yes, I seem to have a slight alignment issue with my wiper blades as well. I bought the car used, and the rHD driver side wiper did leave scratched arches in the glass. I of course changed the blades. But the issue is that that wiper sits very low and will sag and hang over the edge of the wind screen frame. I figure it is the alignment somehow of the pivot.

It's a standard Austin/Morris wiper system which dates back probably to the early fifties. The wiper motor is common to MG/Triumph/Land Rover etc. A tube runs under the dash with a spiral bound inner. (Like a posh bike brake cable). This locates into a concave profiled drive wheel at the bottom of each spindle on the bulkhead. If you remove the arms and run the wiper motor you'll see that the spindles rotate smoothly with minimal free play. The arms locate on splines and are tight, so the only slack really is in the arm to blade join - and you've already identified that. Mine seem to work surprisingly well, with no judder. I use abrasive (Rain X) glass cleaner and Rain X very frequently. The blades don't cross the screen frame at either end.

I've had three Mogs and only on the Roadster have the wipers been satisfactory, I would call one out of three a good result

On the 4/4 Sports the wipers parked off screen so I used to just lift them by back by hand on to the glass, note: I would not normally carry out this operation whilst the car was in motion

Sounds like someone needs to invent Windscreen Sized Tear Off Strips, or get SWMBO to bring along her Long Handled Squeegy

I have travelled 15000 miles in my 4/4 since I adjusted the blades so that they are at 90 degrees to the screen and have had no problems. This followed a suggestion in 'Miscellany'.
Protect the screen and the actual arms themselves (so they are not scratched) while you are doing this as you will require wrench, pliers etc., to bend the arm to achieve the right angle.

I see "decent blades" are mentioned above - but I don't think we have a choice on trads do we? There only seems to be one type of blade available. Someone mentioned scratching by the metal strip - isn't that what the little black plastic end caps are for? I've lost some of mine and must order replacements. I notice that my blades now 6 years old have taken a "set" so that the blade is now permanently angled in one direction when at rest, yet they do still flip over in motion and don't judder (usually) but I think I'd better replace them soon.

Nigel

So now we know what caused it