The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

Hello all!

Every now and again, my wiper blades go too far. The nearside one reaches over the edge of the windscreen (despite being set right at the bottom for its resting position), and then they freeze in place until I nudge them back. Very troublesome in bad weather reaching out the passenger window to push them back! Any ideas?

Is the blade located on the arm firmly and not flexing, check the arm is located properly on the spindle and the nut and washer are in place. if all ok then you need to get behind the glove box (removing glove box isn't too difficult) and check the linkage.

Dolomites have wipers? I just have something that completes a lazy chassé across the windscreen leaving a smeared trail in its wake so that you can't see anything at all, except for small patch on the passenger side, I thought it was a feature.

Sounds like you may have a tired motor that needs some new carbon brushes and the 40 year old solidified grease cleaning out and replenished. Even so, if it goes off the screen that means there is going to be a fair amount of wear in the linkage overall. Nothing too major but there are a fair few pivot points to wear over the years and add them all together and you'll get a lot of slop at the business end. I would take TrustNo1's suggestion and try wiggling them and see if a particular pivot has a lot more movement that the others. I'm only suggesting the motor might be tired because there is a lot of load on the motor when the mechanism changes direction hence stopping and needing a nudge when the blade also sometimes goes off the screen edge due to mechanism slop and wind push.

A pal had a similar problem on his VW Type 2 camper. In his case the tiny splines in the wiper arm socket had mostly worn away so the arm didn't always move when the spindle turned. Buying a new arm cured it.

To answer Galileo, the wipers on my Dolly are actually pretty good for a 40 year old car. Much better the awful rack system that BMC cars used.

Ha! Fair, that Lucas Bowden drive mechanism on the Mini (not the German thing) gave you a nice flappy decorative windscreen ornament at either stoned slug speed or slightly drunk slug speed!

Thanks very much for the simple suggestions - today I sawed through the old spindle (the nut wouldn't come off), and now everything seems pretty good.

Slight new problem though - I invested in a pair of these, and my god, they're crap! I'd have more luck hanging my head out and breathing on the windscreen. Any better solutions?!

Is the spring still intact that holds the wiper arm to the screen? If it is, try bending the arm a little to apply a bit more pressure on the blade.

Tony.

The spring looked ok to me, But I will try bending the arm. Would that not simply provide the same pressure, in a different position though?

No it should put a bit more pressure on the screen therefore giving a better clearing sweep Hopefully?

Tony.

I got the same ones on mine, and yeah, they look the part but the spring is too weak to put any pressure on the screen so they're basically ornamental. Plus the rubber is crap, replaced mine with some bargain basement refill stuff from Wilko's that actually helped a bit because it was softer, lasted since last year but still not brilliant. It's on my to length to do list of items that need sorting out properly.

Can the wiper motors be serviced in situ?
If so, what is the recommended routine?
Mine are pretty slow but otherwise work as they should.

Regarding wiper blades, when I had the Elan I bought a pair of "Speed/ Wire" type blades and very good they were. The back support for the blade is two thick springy wires which encourage it to bend. I see James Paddock sells them for the Dolomite http://www.jamespaddock.co.uk/wash-wipers-11 They might be worth a try.

Sundowner wrote: ↑Tue Oct 23, 2018 11:23 pm Can the wiper motors be serviced in situ?
If so, what is the recommended routine?
Mine are pretty slow but otherwise work as they should.

You can't even get to the wiring plug with the motor in situ! You can get to most of the linkage by removing the glove box and instrument panel, but the motor must be unbolted and disconnected from the linkage (from inside the car) then partially removed and turned to access the wiring plug before final removal for servicing.

If they are merely slow, the best course of action is to find out whether the problem is in the motor or linkage/wheelboxes by disconnecting the linkage at the motor and trying them separately.

Steve

Carledo wrote: ↑Wed Oct 24, 2018 9:21 am

Sundowner wrote: ↑Tue Oct 23, 2018 11:23 pm Can the wiper motors be serviced in situ?
If so, what is the recommended routine?
Mine are pretty slow but otherwise work as they should.

You can't even get to the wiring plug with the motor in situ! You can get to most of the linkage by removing the glove box and instrument panel, but the motor must be unbolted and disconnected from the linkage (from inside the car) then partially removed and turned to access the wiring plug before final removal for servicing.

If they are merely slow, the best course of action is to find out whether the problem is in the motor or linkage/wheelboxes by disconnecting the linkage at the motor and trying them separately.

Steve

Thanks for that Steve,
Rob