How to improve the wipers ...

[Old English White]

After (too) many races under rain , my friend Jean-Pierre and I are decided to do somethings for the wipers of its Elan GTS ...

Apart ordering every single parts from new , Is there somthing other we should try , from using a better (and maybe lighter) motor , different blades ....
Every advices welcome , not only for us , I am sure!
Christian.

[john.p.clegg]

Rain-X

John

[Old English White]

... Yep ,
John , this could do only if alone , quick enough ...
At Charade , Pau , we needed wipers . Too much cars , spray and in some place (specially Pau) , no speed ...
Keep digging , please!
Christian.

[cabc26b]

what is the symptom/problem you are experiencing or trying to cure - wiper blades lifting at speed ? Are you using a poly carbonate windshield or a glass windshield .

[Frank Howard]

Christian,

The two speeds for my two speed wipers used to be slow and stop. There was no way they would work at all on a dry windscreen. I did two things to improve them.

1. I completely disassembled the motor and gearbox so that I could clean and lubricate them. I also cleaned an lubed the tubes that the push pull wire runs through along with the wheel boxes at the base of the wipers.

2. I upgraded to an alternator.

Now they work like those on a modern car.

[john.p.clegg]

Christian

Have you looked into the electrical supply to the windscreen motor (usual fault on Lotus) do you have any high resistance joints en route as the circuit is a little convoluted...
Another idea...on my wipers the spring attachment on the wiper blade is "stepped" so there are two positions to attach the spring (extra pressure)

John

[Old English White]

Thanks mates ,
We are making progress ...
I have to say that when the car was rebuilt , we don't pay enough attention to this important part ...
Frank tell about a complete disassembled motor and gearbox for lubrification , and we ll do it first . Its 2nd point , the car allready run on alternator ...
John , you mentioned about arms with stepped spring attachment ... and I'll look closer at these ... As you can see it on the picture , they are differently "oriented" compared to the Elan next row ... Do we have the good assembly on the car !?!
cabc26b , the windscreen is glass , but a "light" version supplied by TTR ... a new one .
So , it appear that after your answers , arms spring and arrangement should be verified and that the motor & gear has to go for maintenance ... But that there is no reason the correct parts should not do the job , the car's top speed doesn't have change so much (+-210km/h in the hunaudi?res straight).
If you have another direction ... Winter season 's long !
Christian.

[Dag-Henning]

Christian , - have you considered going for a non-original single wiper sollution ? I have fitted a Citroen AX rear wiper to my race-Elan, and with good results. Shouldn't be difficult to find in your area, I believe....

Dag

[Old English White]

Christian , - have you considered going for a non-original single wiper sollution ? I have fitted a Citroen AX rear wiper to my race-Elan, and with good results. Shouldn't be difficult to find in your area, I believe....

Dag

Hi Dag ,
Thanks for your reply.
We need the two wipers as the car entered in events like the french TOUR AUTO LISSAC , combination of sp?cial stages & circuit races ...
So more than half the time , there is a co-pilote on board and he had better to see what is about ... but ,
With your solution , do you used the whole system(motor & arm) of the Citro?n AX !?!
Cheers ,
Christian.

[Dag-Henning]

- OK, then you better stick to the original solution. Yes, I use the whole lot, motor and arm. I had to "doctor" the arm a little to fit the height of the screen though..

Dag

[john122S]

Old Jaguars have the same problem. My '63 Mark II saloon came from the PO with an uninstalled kit to upgrade them, which was a higher Amp Lucas motor which gave a longer stroke of the rack and used correspondingly larger diameter wheel boxes. The rack, tubes and mountings were reused. The parts came from a later Jag (XJ6 I think) and also had a complicated wiring adapter to permit reuse of the original dash switch.

1)If there is room under the Lotus dash for slightly larger wheel boxes, and
2) If there is more modern, stronger motor with gearbox with the same stroke direction and degrees of travel from another British car, along with adaptable wheel boxes,
Then such a semi-authentic looking upgrade could be done.

I guess the upgrade at least doubles the torque delivered to the wiper shafts. I installed the kit on the Jaguar when I saw its astronomical price in the SNJ Barrett catalog - made the 16hrs labor seem cheap.
Someone with the Elan dash out and access to a shop specializing in old Lucas wiper units might be able to work this out by trial & error. Not a job for a DIY Lotus novice in central Virginia, like me.

Cheers, John

[Frank Howard]

Frank tell about a complete disassembled motor and gearbox for lubrification , and we ll do it first .

Christian,

As I recall, I took the whole assembly out of the car. I took the motor apart and checked the brushes. They were OK as up until that point in time, the car got so little use in the rain for obvious reasons. I cleaned it and added a few drops of 3 in 1 oil to the bronze bushings.

When I took the gearbox apart, I found it to be full of perfectly good grease (not dried up) however the grease had been pushed aside and was no longer involved in the mechanical movement. I simply redistributed it so that it could do it's job.

I have a left hand steering car and my wipers parked on the left. I did not like having them sitting in front of me for most of my driving so while I had the gearbox apart, I reset it so the wipers would park on the right. Let me know if this is something that your car needs and I'll attempt to explain how it's done.

When I took the push/pull rod out of the tubes, I found them to be dirty. I cleaned them and lubricated them with white lithium grease as I didn't want the push/pull rod to have to push and pull heavy grease back and forth on every stroke.

For the wheelboxes, I cleaned them and added some white lithium grease.

We all know how difficult removing the wiper arms can be. I took my Dremel with a small wire wheel to the wiper posts in order to clean out the grooves. Then I put anti-sieze on the posts before installing the wiper arms.

Combined with an alternator, there is no reason why your stock wipers shouldn't operate as good as the ones installed in modern cars. Hope this has been of some help Christian.

[SADLOTUS]

Christian

Years ago I drove a Morris Marina in my aim not to spend more than ?50 a year on a car. The wiper motor was basically the same but newer/tighter and a bit faster - I swapped all the cogs and gears and have since had reasonable wipers - although they still lift off the screen at 80 - much to the hilarity of my son.

Paul

[Foxie]

After some hair -raising experiences on continental motorways in the rain, (HGV drivers are well above the 4 foot high spray cloud in a heavy downpour, whereas a Lotus becomes invisible) I attacked this problem.

I agree with much of the foregoing- I put in a new motor, cable rack and wheel boxes.

What made a significant improvement was to relay the power supplies, two relays needed, one for normal and one for high speed.

Smaller 13" blades to lighten the load.

Hella "Variwipe" intermittent interval controller.

Rain-X

2 litre BMW e30 wash water tank. It sits above the relays over the left footwell in the Plus 2

And to complete the all-weather capabilities, two 21W Hella rear fog lamps on the rear parcel shelf.

Sean Murray

[Old English White]

Thanks guys,
One message ,
I got many clues to source problems on the actual system , +2 alternatives solutions = You're great!
Let's stay tuned , we'll work on it !(but never pray for rain!)
Christian.(3rd geared today!)