Converting A Pre-1967 Land Rover To 'Modern' Wipers

I was having a lot of problems with my windscreen wipers. When I used them in a cross wind, they would slowy move on their spindles such that they would end up wiping about a 10-degree arc arcross the windscreen. Also, I tend to think that a good part of the modifications that Land Rover made to the IIA vehicles over their life were based on sound ideas and feedback from use in the field. So, I have a tendancy to modify my IIA accordingly.

Parts

I had to look around a bit for the parts. Here's the list:

Item	Quantity	Manufacturer (Brand)	Part Number	My Supplier
Spindle/Driver/Adaptor	2	Lucas	54721281	British Pacific
Wiper Arm (LH)	1	Land Rover	PRC2620	British Pacific
Wiper Arm (RH)	1	Land Rover	PRC2621	British Pacific
Wiper Blade	2	Land Rover	PRC1330	British Pacific
Wheel Box	2	Land Rover	PRC6283	British Pacific
Cable	1	Lucas	RTC202A	O'Connor Classics
Wipwer Motor	1	Lucas		British Pacific
Wiper Motor	1	Lucas		Off the net
Wiper Motor	1	Lucas		Mini Mania Swap Meet
Wiper Casing	1	Lucas		British Bulldog
Motor Cover	1	Land Rover		British Bulldog

The wiper motor will in all likelihood require some assembly. I got the drive gear out of the motor I got off the net, and the threaded bit at the end of the motor from a motor I got at a swap meet. To fit the drive gear, remove the plate on the back of the motor you plan to use and place the drive gear over the spindle in it. Then fit the cable to the arm inside the motor. Finally, put the threaded bit on the cable, and run it down to the motor, where it will fit in a slot. Refit the backing plate to the motor, and you have one working motor ready to install.

Tools

11/32 & 3/8 socket on a socket driver
1 1/2" hole saw
9/16" spanner

Installation

First remove the old motors. They are worth something (I got a Lazy Bugger badge out of mine, and no amount of money could get me one of those before), so keep them for a trade, or just a kindly donation for parts karma.

Fitting Wheelboxes

First, drill holes 14 inches from side of the firewall on each side, and dead-on the flat spot in between the scutlles and the windscreen. Make sure the drill is at 90 degrees to the flat spot and parallel to the run of the vehicle. Place the wheel box spindles through these holes, and tighten with a 9/16 spanner. Note that over tightening will result in seisure of the gear mechanism. I got mine tight by putting washers in between the firewall and the wheel box. The proper operation of the wiper blades is for the park position to be nearest the center of the windscreen. This means that one side runs counter-clockwise while the other runs clockwise. To achieve this, mount the left-hand wheel box with the cable running across the top, and the right-hand wheel box with the cable runnig across the bottom. This means the wheel boxes will be upside-down from each other. The positioning of the holes is illustrated in the diagram below (I was going to use a drawing program to make a 'fancy' diagram, but the one below was drawn by someone else, contains all the necessary information, and I like the way it looks). Once everything is in place remove the gears and backing plates from the wheel boxes.

Fitting Motor

Since you're doing this to an "early" IIA, there probably isn't a hole for the neck of the motor. I used a hole saw to cut this hole, but I didn't have a 90-degree drill, and the angle got messed up. The result was that I took a nice nick out of my bulkhead. My motor is held in place by the nut on the casing going from the motor to the wheel box. The casing is sufficiently rigid to hold the motor in place, so that should do it. However, I do want to get the proper mounting bracket, and I hear that one from an MGB should do it.

I got the wiper motor cover plate from Biritsh Bulldog (the got it from a donor vehicle). I can't tell from the invoice how much they charged me, but the cable, all tubing, two wheelboxes, motor cover, and an extra (unrelated) guage plate cost $58.

Fitting Cables & Casings

There should be three sections of casing

From the motor to the first wheel box
From the first wheel box to the second wheel box
On the opposite side of the second wheel box from the motor

(Note: All of this should be done before attaching the wiper arms to the wheel boxes.)
These casings have a flair at the ends (with the exception of the motor end, which should have a nut on it). These flairs fit into obvious places on the wheel boxes. After mounting the motor, slide part 1 over the cable, and affix it to the motor, and then to the first wheel box (it won't stay in place now, as the backing plate is still off [see above]). With the gear out of the wheel box, run the cable through it, then refit the gear. Next, thread part 2 over the cable, and affix it to the wheelbox, then replace the backing plate. Now parts 1 and 2 should stay put. Next affix part 2 to the second (right-hand) wheel box and route the cable through the wheelbox, then fit the gear for wheel box 2. Now, fix part 3 to the second wheel box, and refit its backing plate.

Electrics

Motor Connections

This illustration shows the spades on the wiper motor that I purchased from British Pacific. On the motor I have (which is identical to the SIIA manual), #1 is ground, #2 is high speed, #4 is low speed, and park is #5 in the manual, but I can't get it to work. Normally, power goes to the switch, and then on to the park spade. Thus when the switch is off, the wipers park, but I can't get mine to do that. I know this seems simple, but I've tried sending power to #3 and #5, and that doesn't make the wipers park. So, I just have to eyeball it. I don't like this, as I really should be paying attention to the road.

Since there is some variance between motors that are otherwise appropriate, I'll discuss the process of finding the meaning of each spade. On all the motors I've found the spade at the top (which is 90 degrees off the other spades, and #1 in my illustration) is always ground. So, to find the function of a given spade, ground out #1, and send power to another spade. If the motor runs fast, then you've found high, if it runs slow, then you've found low, if it runs for a brief time and stops, you've found park, and if it alternates between running and stopping, you've found intermittent, and are One Lucky Bastard.

Switch Connections

You need a three-position toggle to make this work. I used a headlamp switch because they have high current ratings. Here's the process for figuring out how the switch works (you need a DMM for this):

Attach one terminal of the DMM to a spade on the switch
Note the position of the switch and record the resistance accross all the terminals in relation to the first one. On my DMM, the readout "1 ." means infinite resistance, or no electrical connection (an open circuit). Repeat this process for all switch settings and all spades. You can then make a diagram of how the switch works.

Once you have the diagram of how the switch works, hook up the motor such that there's always power going to park, the first switch position (after off) sends power to slow, and the second position sends power to high (think of the switch positions as 0, 1, and 2, rather than 1, 2, and 3).

Now, find some place to put the switch, and you've got it hooked up.

Fuse

Originally, I used the original left-side wiper power for the new wiper motor. The problem with this was that the motor I bought blew the glass fuse for switched power every time I turned on the motor. So, I routed unswitched power from the ammeter to my auxilliary fuse box which uses plug type fuses, and put it on a 30A fuse. This worked out just fine, but my wipers are on unswitched power now.

Fitting Wipwer Arms and Blades

Once you've gotten the motor to park, fix the wiper wiper blades to the wiper arms, and fix the arms to the spindles with both arms pointing towards the inside of the vehicle. Now, you're done. Go have a Guinness.