Section : Electrical Equipment

Alternators, dynamos, lights, wipers, etc.

Wipers not parking

Posted By : Mark Galbraith, 03-Feb-2004, 10:48am

Hi to all, I'm a new Spit owner and this will probably be the first of many posts!
My wipers don't 'park' themselves neatly at the bottom of the screen, they just stop whenever they are switched off - usually in the middle of the 'screen. I know that the answer is likely to be electrical. All connections at the wiper motor appear clean. Has anyone any ideas?

Followups :

Wipers not parking

Posted By : David Styles, 03-Feb-2004, 12:45pm

Welcome to the wonderful world of spitfires...

Its the self park mechanism in the motor thats gone awry.

I can't tell you exactly how it works as I don't know ! but I know its in there.. and it gets stuck or wears out.

I'm sure I've seen a thread all about it on the message board before though.

just had a search... if you try "wipers" there's loads of threads..

"WEIRD WIPERS" is one I found inparticular...

cheers

Dave
- Wipers not parking
  
  Posted By : Adrian Lee, 03-Feb-2004, 06:01pm
  
  Or ,alternatively,switch them off when they are at the bottom of the screen.
  - Wipers not parking
    
    Posted By : Glyn Davies, 03-Feb-2004, 06:13pm
    
    Welcome to the board!
    
    I had this problem too but I'd make an alternative suggestion to check first. My problem was located in the connections to the ignition unit (behind the key under the dash) where a spade connector had come off it's terminal.
    
    I fixed it by accident when the same thing happened to the main ignition feed. Reconnecting both the dangling wires brought the car back to life plus the wiper-park that had never worked since I bought the car. Before that I'd been turning the switch with split second timing!
    
    Glyn
    - Wipers not parking
      
      Posted By : Chris Wilson, 03-Feb-2004, 08:24pm
      
      Yep!! I "lost" the self park facility on my wipers a couple of months back and couldn't for the life of me figure out what was the cause of it. I was about to take the cowards way out and fit a new wiper motor and then discovered a dangly wire behind the wiper switch!! (I think it was a brown one but cant swear to it!) Re-connected it to the appropriate connector on the back of the switch and cured the fault!! (must have pulled it off when having an earlier fiddle in that area!)
      
      Regards
      
      Chris
      
      1975 1500
      - Wipers not parking
        
        Posted By : Mark Galbraith, 03-Feb-2004, 09:47pm
        
        Thanks for the hints...
        I will check out the wiring at the weekend. Switching the wipers off at the bottom really is a top tip but after driving it over 400 miles in the rain to get it home on Sunday, I was fed up with that.
        
        Wipers not parking
        
        Posted By : Adrian Lee, 03-Feb-2004, 11:59pm
        
        Sorry Mark.......my sense of humour.........i have a MK 1 Vitesse and thats how they are..........wonder now if that's right ?...........ah well that is how they stay...............did you get the top tip from Viz about reducing electric bills by drilling a hole in the side of your fridge to ensure the light goes out?..........a great tip
Wipers not parking

Posted By : Umesh Patel, 04-Feb-2004, 05:28pm

Hi there,

Same problem with mine, although its because the switch is just a normal toggle switch not the correct twin position sort.

Check out the following link, it explains everything:

http://www.vtr.org/maintain/wiper-motor/

I should get round to doing mine really but after 3 and a half years I'm used to flicking them on and off in the right place

Hope this helps, Umski
Wipers not parking

Posted By : William Davies, 04-Feb-2004, 09:36pm

Hi Mark,
What kind of Spitfire do you have? The Mk1-3 had a simple self parking mechanism operated by a moving contact attached to the drive gear. This type has an external wire running around the outside of the cover. Often internally broken, this wire is the feed for the self parking mechanism.
The MkIV and 1500 used a different motor with an inbuilt parking switch, fragile by all accounts though I've not had one fail myself,
Cheers,
Bill.
- Wipers not parking
  
  Posted By : Mark Galbraith, 07-Feb-2004, 00:13am
  
  Bill,
  It's a 1500...With the info from yourself and the excellent article on the VTR website I should be able to sort it out.
  Thanks.
  - Wipers not parking
    
    Posted By : Mark Galbraith, 16-Feb-2004, 10:53pm
    
    Just in case anyone is browsing this as a resource...I have now sorted out my wipers. The limit switch that is attached to the motor body, was taped closed with electrical tape. I don't know why but I'm sure there must have been a valid reason at some time. I removed the tape and the wipers work perfectly.
    The limit switch can be removed easily by sliding it off the motor casing. It's held on with a spring clip. There is no need to remove the motor (like I did!)