240 General: Winscreen Wipers - Repair of Common Problem

[Paul240480]

It is quite common for the windscreen wiper couplings to separate when detatching the drive-arm from the wiper motor. I'm talking about the wire cables coming off of the pulleys as tension is 'lost' whilst disconnecting that drive-arm.

This is a fiddly job, simply down to the position of the pulleys. The're tucked up behind the radio (high-level location). I've heard of all sorts of horror stories about having to pull the radio & remove the grill in the top middle of the dash & needing a number of hands coming from all directions in order to carry out the repair.

I must admit that after mine fell to bits whilst in the finishing touches of replacing my wiper motor, I spent about an hour simply trying to work out HOW it was supposed to 'sit' & failed miserably.

Luckily for me this co-incided with Mike Brace being 'up the road' at his place in Brittany (well 98 miles up the road to be exact ). Anyway having a working model to 'crib' from in the form of 'The Bitch Machine' seemed like a good plan!

So if yours fails these pics & bits of advice maybe of use:
Oh, if you haven't already done so:
Remove the glove box, remove the plastic push fit heater pipework - one from the centre console to the flexi-pipe for the side window demist, and that flexi pipe too. Also remove the carpet-trim section right up high in the passenger footwell. The bit which hides all the wires & gubbins sort of behind the glove box, if that makes sense. You shouldn't need to remove anything further.

This is how it looks when all in place:

You see in this one, at the right hand end of the drive-arm there is a nut (8mm) and on the end going through that nut you can just see the collared head of the tensioning screw,
Also looking at the pulley at it's 3 O'clock position there is an 'indentation'. On the tension wire there is a metal 'block' which must sit in the indentation as it is this that the motor 'pulls' on to drive the wipers.

Now that you've worked out what go's where its onto the repair job. First loosen the tension screw as far as is possible without it coming out altogether. If it does just stick it back it a turn or two. You then need to put a loop in the wire like this:


Now if you are small enough you can get down into the footwell & place the wire over the pulley, remembering to put that 'block' into the indentation. This may take two or three attempts, but keep going it'll eventually slot into place. Once in you can slowly let go, it should sit there, but don't knock anything.
Now is a good time to extracate yourself from the footwell & have a stretch

For the next part you will need an 8mm spanner & a VERY short flat head (IIRC) screwdriver. We used one made up from screwdriver bits & just the tube to fit to a leccy screwdriver. I think you can make it out in the pic' which is a tad dark I'm afraid:

By holding the screw with the drver you can nip the tension up with the spanner, again whilst bent double in the footwell.
We found that tightening it this way did not get it as tight as the one in The Bitch Machine. This was simply due to the working angle being so awkward. To finish it off hold just the screwdriver bit in a mini-mole grip or similar & then you should be able to get it nice & tight using the spanner. There should be very little, if any movement of the drive arm once all is firm.

Last bit, it's a good idea to give the cables & pulleys a good smear of grease to ensure all runs smoothly & stays quiet.

Good Luck if you need to tackle this fiddly task & hope this helps

[Clifford Pope]

I must have been very lucky, as I have never had a coupling come apart despite once having a spate of motor failures and endlessly removing and replacing them. I didn't realise until I read similar threads on the subject that there was potentially a risk - i just unbolted the crank and let it dangle, and then reconnected without a thought.

Thanks for the article - I'll be more careful in future, and refer to this for reference.



Edit Original thread here