Windscreen wipers

Another little hiccup on the way to MOT preparation for my 1991 Clipper (barn find)!
I have adjusted the wipers so that the sweep to the bottom of the windscreen stops just short of hitting the windscreen rubber. They are operating normally.
However when I switch off the wipers they finish their downward sweep and park about 4 inches higher - just high enough up the windscreen to be annoyingly in the line of sight!!
Not sure why this is happening - perhaps something to do with the electrics, rather than a mechanical adjustment?
Grateful for any advice.
many thanks
dengeo

No, not really.  The issue is that your wipers weren't fully at the rest position when you first adjusted them and that you didn't clean the wiper stalks and or your wiper arms are too wobbled to fully seat and bind, from years of cleaning the stalks and finally are too large for them and the arms need replacing,  Takes Decades tho to get to the replacing the arms.  The stalks and arms are a Tapered Bite fit, and the teeth on the stalks get corroded and filled with shaved aluminum corrosion and metals for the teeth on the shaft to lose their grip on the wiper arm. This is also the perfect time to remove the plastic lower cover and clean it nice and shiny.



Remove Both wiper arms from the Stalks.
Remove the cap cover with a flat blade or a pick.
Remove the nut 10mm, and cupped spring washer.
Remove the Arms from the Stalks.

Take a 4 inch square piece of thin cardboard, and center a 1" hole in it. Place it over the stalk to protect your paint.  Using a Brass tooth Brush or steel scrub the shaft of the Stalks to expose the teeth on them.

After scrubbing the Stalks, don't forget to lightly clean the inside of the arms a wee bit, and I mean wee….I also take the time to use Never-seize on the teeth of the stalk, but this is the only time I wipe most of it off, it tends to keep the corrosion down and makes it easier to remove them in the future..

If your arms are giving you a fit getting off the stalks there are 2 briano approved ways to remove them . One is with a Faucet Knob Puller (just be sure that you loosen but not remove the nut before using the tool) and the second is to lightly tap both sides of the arm with dual nylon hammer blows, this is very similar to removing outer tie-rod ends from the spindle with two hammers, as it will pop off.

Once you have removed the corrosion on them (arms still off), turn your car on and cycle the wipers about 2 or 3 times to let them run then turn the wipers off and they should park once they have parked, turn the key off and remove it from the ignition.

Place the Arms back on the stalks and position them parallel to the windscreen edge about 1" above the seal.

Replace the cupped steel washer.
Replace the nut, and tighten it (don't over torque it) so that you have to hold the arm in place.  Once you have it tight, try moving the arm to see if it slips, if it does reposition it and tighten the nut a bit more until the arm doesn't move.

Do the same to the other arm, and you should be good to go.

If you use the intermittent function due to the mature of the 555 timer circuit sometimes they don't fully park but stop short of the return switch in the motor assembly, just cycle them with the hi-or-low speed of the switch and they should then park….

It isn't that the wiper relay is bad, but reseating the relay in the socket will help, it is that the 555 timer circuit in the relay can get weird and stop.  I have had this issue since 1981 on various Rabbits/Golfs/Cabriolets that I have owned, I replaced the relay with new and still had the parking issue when all the other items were cleaned and fast….  I have taken apart the relays and re-soldered all the connections internally, but still this happens. So I learned that if I cycled them with the hi/low side of the switch all was well until the next time which could be weeks, months or years.  I have had this happen on other cars as well and learned to live with it occasionally happening.  Years ago as in 1976 I used to retro-fit my cars with the intermittent wiper, that I saw in a popular magazine and it was how to build the intermittent relay circuit and wire it in to your existing wiring… worked really well but occasionally would flake out and not park correctly or stop all together.

I really liked the intermittent function that was Vacuum operated on my Rover 3500s years ago…..

My first suggestion is to Remove and cycle the wipers with the hi/low switch remove and clean your stalks then reposition the arms and tighten the nuts.

I suppose I should do a how do I do that with pictures of it.   

  jesus, fairly long winded way to say readjust your wipers.

if you have a Haynes there is the measurements for the wiper parked position

sounds like you need to pop the arm off the motor and adjust there, rather than move the wipers.

pop the arm off the motor spindle, cycle the wipers. pull the wipers off the screen and rotate the bell arm back and forth till you find the position which puts the wipers at the lowest point. refit bell arm, lower wipers to screen and adjust to suit. pull wipers off screen again and cycle wipers to confirm all is well and they dont sweep off the bottom of screen.

done!