Rear wiper stopped working

[Metallo]

Originally Posted by Simmy

rear wiper problems are usually spindle seized and the motor has stripped the teeth off the internal gears or if no power to the motor fuse or break in the wire inside the car near the hinge conduit its also worth checking the relay but these hardly ever fail

If I can open it, I guess I will have my answer, but I need to know how to open it.

[Forrest]

Sorry, I have come quite late to the party here; acknowledging the reference to some of my work on small motors in post 2. Thank you.

That was the headlight wiper motors, which are NLA. There may be some transferable information about the sort of problems and how the motors park. But they are quite a bit different.

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=330379

I've never opened a rear wiper motor as none of mine have failed, yet. The Volvo part number is 1358011. OEM, pattern parts and refurbished ones still appear to be available. Skandix have a good range of options.

I think, from other posts that I have seen, problems are often due to the linkage coming loose or needing fresh lubrication. So it would be well worth checking that carefully before doing anything too drastic to (or replacing) the motor.

If I were going to try dismantling one of those motors I'd be looking at drilling or grinding the rivets on the gearbox in order to get into it and then probably tapping the holes in the body to take a machine screw to reassemble. Or maybe just a suitable nut/bolt.

That said, with replacements available for under 100 Euros I'd probably just buy a new one and put the original on my ever-growing pile of things to look at one day.

Good luck to the OP fixing it.

[bob12]

You will find some guidance under the often overlooked FAQ's Sticky above where there is a small section on Wiper Motors.

I quote from part .... "Motor Gear Repair. [Tom Kaylor] My rear wiper motor stripped the driven (big) gear. I removed it from the vehicle and noticed there are no screws holding the case cover on; while they look like rivets they are actually protrusions of the die cast housing and will break off flush. I reinstalled the cover and drilled and tapped the housing for 8-32 screws. Be sure to use the cover for a template so everything lines up. The shaft has serrations that deform the plastic gear ID to hold it in place. When it fails it enlarges the bore of the gear. This was my first experience using JB Weld so I had my doubts. Anyway I used a small 3 corner file to create several keyways or notches in the plastic gear to give the JB Weld something to flow into. Be sure to prep the shaft and gear with a non-petroleum based solvent, something that won't attack the plastic; brake cleaner worked for me. Clean the housing, check and clean the electrical contacts. The old grease was dried out so I used Lubriplate 105 white grease but not to excess. Reinstalled and ran the motor until it reached park, then re-attached all the linkage. You could or maybe should give it about 24 hrs to set up since the JB cures slowly before reattaching the linkage. At this point it has performed flawlessly for 2 weeks and saved me about $140."

Bob.