Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Help!!!
I was using my 1972 plus 2 at night - lights on, radio on, wipers going and undid both windows to help reverse.
When I was finished, I went to put both windows up. I pressed both switches for both windows in at the same time and as they were crawling up, my windscreen wipers stopped working.
Everything else works fine - all instrument panels, lights, windows etc. but the wipers just will not work on either speed.
I have some dudes located in the glove box and I have checked all of them and all are working.
Am I missing any other fuses? Have I done for the motor? Is there anything else I can try?

You're lucky - the dudes in my glovebox are (like) total slackers.

As for the wiper motor - check the wiring w a multimeter. The supply goes unswitched to the motor from the fusebox, the return wires go to earth via the switch. The wipers self park via a switch contact in the gearbox that returns to earth.

A bit of testing via some jumper leads can shed some light on whether the motor or the wiring is an issue. I made my jumper leads by soldering alligator clips to the ends of a metre of 3mm cable (ie insulated "wire") with a 20amp fuse soldered in the middle.

If the wiring is AOK then I suspect the brushes are the issue. Often the commutator is oxidsed and dirty. Pulling the motor to bits and giving it a birthday by checking the resistance of the windings, cleaning the commutators with a bit of emery paper, greasing the gearbox is not that hard and has returned all of my lucas motors to service. If the brushes are not serviceable then (apparently) NOS ones are available but a cheaper option is to get a similar size one for a power drill or similar.

Cheers for that - obviously it should have read fuses not dudes but your response has been (like) totally rad man!!

I will get to work on it as suggested. Cheers