Wiper arm play

[whistler]

I have a 66 mk1 with the single speed non-parking wiper motor.
With heavy rain the wiper arms/blades sweep over the windscreen rubber and onto the scuttle. There is about 10 degrees of play on the arm/spindle if I twist by hand.
Is this likely to be knackered boxes, worn worm cable or worn internal gears inside the motor? I did check the inside of the motor, cleaned and re-greased it before re-assembly.
Thanks

[Peter Laidler]

Easy fix as it is very probably one of two things. A worn segment of the wiper spindle in the wheel boxes. Easily fixed by rotating the wheelbox gear wheel half a turn so that the rack part engages a new/unused part of the wiper spindle gear. In my very limited experience, it's very rarely the flexible push-pull drive part

This way you have to remove the wheel boxes but that means that you can grease them and clean them up again before you replace them. There is an easier way but....

The other common problem is a worn or knackered driver arm within the motor. Another easy fix - if you've got a drill to drill out the old knackered bush and a lathe to machine up a new bush. Done it loads of times.

[whistler]

I stripped the wheel boxes and cleaned/greased before reassembly and the gears seemed OK but I'll further investigate the driver arm.
Thanks.

[Peter Laidler]

The trouble with the wiper motor and the wheelboxes is seems to me is that while it is a direct - supposedly the best - drive, there's inbuilt play or wear at each end. And with linkages, that means accumulative error at the end of the mechanical drive line......, the now sloppy wiper blades