windscreen wipers

[happycat]

on my 92 facelift the wipers when parked point to the left and wipe from left to right as if it should be a left hand drive ,which means the passenger side gets better sweep area than the driver side! is this normal? and is there a way to reverse the way they work? cheers Cliff

[Brakebuster]

this is normal , and depends on which part they grabbed on the production line, as there are two manufacturers of wiper motors ,

to change would involve removing the dash loom and replacing with the correct one, as the wiper arm on the steering column is also different between brands ,

BB

[happycat]

this is normal , and depends on which part they grabbed on the production line, as there are two manufacturers of wiper motors ,

to change would involve removing the dash loom and replacing with the correct one, as the wiper arm on the steering column is also different between brands ,

BB

And you wonder why the British motor ind. struggles to survive!

[ptjs1]

Cliff,

If your wipers point to left when parked and sweep from left to right, that's normal for a RHD car as it maximises the swept area in front of the driver with overlapping sweeps and maximum coverage to top right of windscreen. You'll notice the top left of screen is not fully swept.

I might be wrong, but I think the differing wiper motors had been resolved by the time of facelift cars, with cars of your era set up correctly for RHD, as per your configuration.

Paul

[Brakebuster]

i think Paul has got it right there,

as my 89 car has left parking Electrolux wipers ,

BB

[davidr]

Cliff - I don't think that the situation was quite as haphazard as BB implies! There was a change in supplier from the Lucas rack type to the Electrolux linkage drive type for the 1990 Model Year. This was actually applied in August 1989. The later type park to the opposite side to the earlier type. They were the same for both left and right hand drive versions. At the same time, the steering column, wheel and switchgear was changed. The old steering wheel adjusted in and out and the new type tilted up and down. The key also moved from the dashboard to the column.
My 1989 V12 has the earlier Lucas type that park in front of the passenger and so sweeps up into the top corner of the screen in front of the driver which I feel is better.
My 1996 Celebration Convertible has the Electrolux wipers and they park in front of the driver which means that the driver doesn't get the top corner swept but the pay off is that the Electrolux version is more reliable.
Hope that helps
David

[Brakebuster]

BUT

mine is a january 89 car, with electrolux that park on the passenger side of a RHD car...

not everything is cut and dried with this era of cars, just like the Salisbury and Dana diff's ,


BB ( Salisbury diff )

[davidr]

BB - that's interesting. Mine is also Jan 1989! Maybe your theory of random parts bins holds water!
Which steering column and switchgear do you have?
Regards
David

[PaulE]

As an add-on to the current topic, my wipers (1994 car) always made a horrendous shrieking noise unless it was raining really hard. Last year I replaced the blades with some solid rubber ones and the noise went. What a relief. They are 'Universal Retrofit Flat Aero Blades' type WB5-15 for the XJS; available from www.wiperblades.co.uk

[Brakebuster]

BB - that's interesting. Mine is also Jan 1989! Maybe your theory of random parts bins holds water!
Which steering column and switchgear do you have?
Regards
David

January 17 1989 , ordered in december 88 , 89 model year on the build sheet from the production line , i have a copy of it,

the switchgear and column are of the original type , and not the interior upgrade type before the facelift cars



BB

[ptjs1]

davidr, Tks for the post, I stand corrected! (not for the first time!)

We had done some research some years ago with Jaguar, when Corgi wanted to source a car with left-parking wipers. That was when we were told that post-88 cars all had left-parking wipers. That's obviously now not correct. My own 94 car has left-parking wipers and most publicity pics of facelift cars show left-parking wipers. However, I've just checked the pics of the last 2 1996 production cars and they have right-parking wipers! So, as with your car, David, the random build seemed to continue right to the end of production! Stock control, don't you just love it!

I still think that left-parking wipers give a clearer view for drivers of Right-hand drive cars!

Irrespective of the configuration, they key thing is to regularly clean and change the blades, and also check alignment. The arms can become slightly bent causing juddering / sticking, and the right-hand blade (on left-parking wipers) can touch the screen edge when on high speed, damaging the blade edge over time.

Paul

[happycat]

well I seem to of started a great topic here great response cheers guys,i was worried I had a dodgy car!

[davidr]

Below a couple of photos

My V12 coupe registered Jan 1989 with the earlier Lucas style that park on the left

My 1996 Celebration Convertible with Electrolux wipers that park on the right. This car is about 1,000 from the end of production.

[Brakebuster]

David

are you positive that your 89 car has Lucas motor wipers , as the parking position would indicate it could be Electrolux,

the only real way to know is to pull out the wiper box

or check the vin , lol


for those that dont know what the main difference is , well its all about the wiring,
the bulkhead multiplug is different , with more ( ? ) wires for the electrolux wipers, the control module is different and the stalk control is different from the Lucas setup , the two are not cross compatible

BB

[bokapita]

for those that dont know what the main difference is , well its all about the wiring, the bulkhead multiplug is different , with more ( ? ) wires for the electrolux wipers, the control module is different and the stalk control is different from the Lucas setup , the two are not cross compatible BB

Actually the bulkhead plug of the Electrolux (new switchgear) and Lucas (old switchgear) wipers is the same, at least between prefacelift Lucas and Electrolux wiper cars. The wiring may be different, but the two can be, on a Lucas original switchgear, Lucas original wiper car, swapped with no problems EXCEPT that you lose the intermittent wipe facility. I have done this swap, then swapped back to Lucas when I lucked into a NOS Lucas motor.

Also, someone has claimed you CAN reactivate the intermittent wipe on the swap (Electrolux for Lucas original) by doing a simple wiring change. I had the article, but cannot find it now. Will keep looking.