Wiper mechanism - grommet part number / supplier? - 1994 facelift

[AndyF]

Hello all,

Anyone have an idea as to the part number or potential supplier of the grommets that seal the wiper mechanism spindle on a 1994 facelift coupe?

I have been making progress on my air conditioning / plenum investigations (see other thread), but I have now got a dose of "while I am in there"...! As the plenum cover came off, along with the wiper spindle covers, it became clear that the grommets that seal the wiper spindles had seen better days.

On the Classic Parts website, its seems that the mechanism was sold as one unit and I can't find anyone who just supplies the grommet on their own..... is it time to try to find something else that will fit?

All suggestions gratefully received.

AF

[AndyF]

Hi all

A couple of updates on this. Had an email reply from the Jaguar Classic Parts team. Sadly they can't tell me who even made the wiper mechanism assembly, let alone the grommet seal. Nor can they tell me if it is used in any other application.... they did suggest I make something out of an inner tube?!

From searching the US Jag-Lovers forum, I can find a couple of references to people using parts from a (series?) XJ wiper mechanism "kit". But I can find no seller of such a kit now.

The search goes on...

AF

[PaulGover]

For what little it's worth, one of my cars was missing one of those grommets for more than 10 years. I think it's purely ornamental. If you have a lathe, you could probably turn up a suitable replacement from plastic bar,

[ng4xjs]

Mine too. Had a look today because I needed to get inside the box. Good and bad news. One slightly crusty area, size of a one penny piece just on the lip below the mesh. Cleaned it off, treated and painted. All else paintwork wise in there is good. My reason for opening it up, was a general lack of windscreen washer performance (slowly been getting worse) so I thought I would have a look for any blockages etc. Long story short, both washer jets cracked and basically disintegrated. That's okay I thought, I have a space set up which I had acquired for my 1992 variant some 15 odd years previous.

Not so good. When I came to re-install dawned on me that the heater elements use a different wiring set up and there is no temp sensor. Hadn't appreciated that the "Facelift" AJ6 is different in this regard to the "Facelift" AJ16. Or it might just be something as simple as dependant on the wiper motor used. That said I therefore need to admit to a temporary bodge. I took the view that for the moment it was better to have a fully functional pair of washer jets than to worry not having the heater element functioning.

Happy to report all well and good.
Nick

I

[AndyF]

Hello all,

Please see the image below

I am rather excited about this!!! Having found that I could not source replacement wiper mechanism grommets, I set about the task of re-engineering them, using my 17 odd years of experience with engineering Body and Trim systems at Bentley, combined with the latest 3D printing technology.

I reverse engineered the original 27 year old rubber parts and created a set of master drawings and associated 3D CAD.

Using this as the basis, I have tweaked the design to work with 3D printing technology and have had set of 4 prototypes made. I will make some initial trials for form, fit and function and I already can see some areas where they can be improved further.

The turn around for the process of developing these parts - from idea to 1st prototype arriving in my hand - has taken only 20 days, 6 of these were adjusting the design and trialling some different ideas before committing to a final concept.

I'll let you know how the form, fit and function trials go.

AF

[davidr]

Well done Andy - I'll be interested to see how this turns out.

[ptjs1]

Great stuff Andy!

Would you like a list of other unavailable small rubber and plastic parts for the XJS as your next challenge?!

Cheers

Paul

[AndyF]

Thanks Paul

Before I get too excited, I need to be happy with the function of the part etc.

But yes, if you, or anyone else has a "wish list" of parts that either JLR or the current supplier base can't do, let me know!

AF

[AndyF]

Hi all,

Some progress this afternoon.

I have checked the parts over in detail and I can see a few areas where they can be improved - but overall, they are it for purpose. So - form OK.

I then set about a trial fit on my car - see the sequence of images below:

Cleaned and degreased wiper spindle

Small smear of teflon grease to seal and ease fitment of new grommet

Grommet partially fitted....

Continued...

[AndyF]

Continued

Grommet seated in position

I then ran the wipers and the spindle turned freely, with the grommet secure in place. Visually, the sealing feature around the wiper spindle appears to be sitting evenly on the surface of the spindle.

With wiper arm now attached

Underside view of wiper - showing small clearance to underside of wiper arm boss, as intended.

So for me, that is a major tick in the "fit" assessment box, with almost the "function" element signed off too. I need to finish the assembly of both arms (once I have the HVAC issue sorted - the reason that all this started!) and then spray the wiper mechanism with water and then disassemble to check for water ingress... but either way, they will be much better at keeping out water and dirt than the original cracked and broken ones.

On reflection, this has been very worthwhile. While the wipers on my XJS don't get a huge amount of use (as it is only used in the dry normally), the fact that the grommets were broken and letting in dirt and water into the wiper mechanism bearings wasn't a good position to be in for the long term. This is massively amplified by the fact that wiper mechanisms, certainly for the facelift, are NLA as new assemblies. So, for a small outlay, mine are now protected from the elements.

I hope you have enjoyed following this with me. Roll on the next project....

AF

[ptjs1]

Really good, Andy! Well done!

And the price to loyal upstanding JEC members will be...?

Naive question perhaps, but are you limited as to the material composition and colours of what you can produce?

Cheers

Paul

[AndyF]

Hi Paul,

Material composition has some constraints - traditional 3D printing tended to have a very narrow range of materials available, with limited mechanical properties. With the advances seen in the last 10 - 15 years, it is now possible to print in a range of metals, plastics and rubbers, with much higher integrity and confidence in their mechanical properties. What really gets me excited is linking 3D printing with multi-parametric finite element modelling, which gives rise to beautiful lightweight organic shapes that simply could not be made using conventional processes... but this is all bit beyond what we are considering here (my old life coming back to haunt me!)....

For these grommets, I first looked at getting them made as a traditional injection moulding, but the tooling cost (for conventional metallic tooling) didn't make sense at the volumes I wanted (I only wanted a few!). Focus then swung to 3D printing, where improvements in process now allows printing in flexible materials, suitable for grommets, seals etc. These first prototype parts are made from a type of polyurethane so have similar feel / stiffness to the original parts. As the base material is naturally black, hence the parts come out black. However, dye can be added for moulded parts or post printing painting can modify the original colour to anything that is needed.

As regards prices... I can make some more - please PM me with your details if you are interested and I am sure we can come to some agreement!

Take care,

Andy