Anything and everything Herald. Talk about anything from the first 948s to the last 13/60s.

Alternators, dynamos, lights, wipers, etc.

I have a 1971 Herald 13/60, with the later, wider spaced wiper blades.

When testing the wipers the other day, they kept stopping half way across the screen when the screen became dry - they were fine when the screen was wet.

The car has been cosseted most of its life, and has probably not been out in the rain very much. Things wearing out are therefore probably not the problem, but lack of use (of the wipers) could well be. I have checked the motor brushes and spring - these seem OK. I have cleaned the old grease out of the wheel box, and removed the cable rack and cleaned the old grease from that. The wheel boxes also seem to move freely, and the cable rack seems to move smoothly in the tubes.

I have also put an ammeter in the circuit, and the motor takes about 2 amps when running OK, and draws about 8 amps when the arms stop.

On closer examination, the wipers move OK if either arm is lifted from the screen, but they refuse to work when both are on the screen and the screen is dry. While this will probably not cause me any problems in use (and it could have well been like this for some time), they could fail during the MoT test.

Something is clearly marginal. Removing the wheel boxes and tubes for closer examination looks a nightmare job (dismantling the dashboard).

Any thoughts/suggestions welcome.

Thanks
Martin