Post by Ben N on Dec 20, 2019 18:14:00 GMT
Recently, the wipers started randomly briefly stopping mid-stroke, so I pulled the motor off to have a look. It was full of somewhat hardened grease, the cupped washer was broken, and the motor brushes were done. I had a spare MGB one that's almost identical so I took it apart too. It seemed in better shape all round so I gave it a good greasing and attached the Austin's cable to it. It's was marked 105° instead of the Austin's 110°. This appealed to me as the wipers were always either whacking the trim on the bottom or partly disappearing off the side of the windshield before. I also gave the wheelboxes half a turn while the cable was out in case that would help with the looseness.
Last night was sufficiently stormy to see how things worked out. How often do we look forward to a rainy day to drive our classic? Wipers worked better than ever, and after taking the arms off to turn them a spline they almost reach the bottom and barely touch the side. They are as quiet if not quieter than on a modern car, and they even self park. (which they never did before) Very pleased!
I've also added two fuses and relays for the headlights. About a month ago, the cheap new headlight switch I had put in my BGT melted after half an hour of driving on high-beams. (the scruffy-looking original switch never had a problem...) This ties in nicely with Chris' comment above about the quality of cheap new parts. The relays also nicely fill some of the blank space by the fusebox where the old alternator's control boxes used to be.
Last night was sufficiently stormy to see how things worked out. How often do we look forward to a rainy day to drive our classic? Wipers worked better than ever, and after taking the arms off to turn them a spline they almost reach the bottom and barely touch the side. They are as quiet if not quieter than on a modern car, and they even self park. (which they never did before) Very pleased!
I've also added two fuses and relays for the headlights. About a month ago, the cheap new headlight switch I had put in my BGT melted after half an hour of driving on high-beams. (the scruffy-looking original switch never had a problem...) This ties in nicely with Chris' comment above about the quality of cheap new parts. The relays also nicely fill some of the blank space by the fusebox where the old alternator's control boxes used to be.