its the small things in life..........15 mins of fun!

Mick Rae

Active Member
Normally 'intermittent fault' is a bad thing, but I had a 'constant intermittent fault' - as in my wiper delay did not delay. I just took it off the car to examine the magic that makes it work - what a lovely device! Just a fantastic thing! First thought was I don't fancy my chances if that black hose that's buried in the wiring decided to leak - but hey, Rover would never use such inferior hose I am sure. Took it to bits, a quick clean up, some rubber conditioner on the diaphragm, some emery paper over the contacts, and a new bit of sponge to replace the dust that was my non-return valve, and my intermittent wipers are working as they should. I salute the designer of such a great gadget - I would have had no chance if this was electronic!
 
I had exactly the same experience, the variable delay had not worked for several years and like you I thought this is going to be difficult if not impossible to repair. However half an hour of labour, and some creative thinking and hey presto they have worked brilliantly now for the last 10 years or so! A great little piece of engineering. I don’t think many cars from the 60s and 70s had variable wipers, you can imagine owners of the cars when they were new showing their mates this great gadget!
 
Totally agree. I had a non working delay for many years. Being the sort that likes to pull things apart , I actually traced a split in the air tube that hugs the wiring and appears at the steering binnacle. So not all air tubes were brilliant. Mind you the car was in a scorching climate -Australia and NZ
 
I had an issue with my wipers in that they would work but would not park. The issue was with the switch mounted on the outside of the motor. An easy fix you might think but whoever designed it decided to screw this externally mounted switch on using two screws from inside the case of the motor. So I had to strip out the entire wiper system from the car and strip the unit to get to them. Not the cleverest design even though it was mechanical!!!
 
Hi, Ahh, yes but. I had the same problem on the Land Rover and on stripping it down it wasn't the switch, it was the grease had gone hard and was holding the switch down. All the grease had been pushed away from the gears and wasn't lubricating anything, so a good clean out and re-grease and all OK again. The only cost was some petrol, grease and a bit of time.

Colin
 
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