Wiper motor and linkage rebuild

[Morewhitenoise]

Hey folks,

Since owning my car the wipers barely moved or never worked at all.
I decided to go all out and rebuild the wiper linkage and get the motor refurbished.

There are a few posts on RX7 forum and limited diagrams online so thought id share my experience here for others.

Removel of the linkage is easy. Start with undoing the 4 bolts that hold the wiper motor on, then slide the end of the linkage out of the hole behind the motor.
Moving the wipers up will result in the linkage going towards the drivers side, giving more space to get the first part through the hole.

Use a large flat bladed screwdriver to pop the ball of the linkage rod. Be careful doing this as its easy to damage the plastic insert in the linkage.

Once the motor is off take a picture of where the motor sits at rest as this is important for re-assembly later.
you can mark the wipers up too, and put a line on the screen with them at full rest before taking things apart.

At this stage you can send the motor off to be serviced if you want or just go ahead and rebuild the linkage.

Next you need to remove the wiper cowl at the bottom of the screen and remove the access panels (fairly obvious).

There are 3 10mm nuts on the drivers side and 2 in the middle of the car under the wiper cowl.

Remove these and slide the linkage out of the large opening next to the drivers side mount.

Take a picture of the linkage as each rod is unique and each wiper box/pivot is orientated in a specific way.

To take the pivots apart you will need a small pick and a small flat blade.

Put the wheel box/pivot in a vice and remove the snap ring under the top washer.
Removing the top washer you should then be able to ease the wheel box housing off the pivot.

At this stage you will need to clean off all the old crap/gunk and polish the shaft (lel).

I sourced replacement shim washers, o-rings and crinkle washers from ebay.

I used silicone grease on the o-rings and teflong grease for the pivots.

You will see one pivot/wheel box housing is brass and the other is plastic, no idea why this is!

Re-assemble with clean/renewed parts. Check for free movement and adjust washer stack if needed.

When putting the linkage back in the car remember that the linkage needs to be extended all the way to the passenger side for the wipers to be at the end of their travel.
If you fail to position the linkage driver back on the motor correctly you could end up with downward movement of your wipers before they go up. Too far out and this will break something.

I lost my markings when rebuilding mine over a period of a few weeks, so did it by eye and it was actually fairly easy - just make sure the motor driver is horizontal and the linkage is fully extended when you put it back together. You can get a small amount of adjustment at the wheel boxes when mounting the wipers.

Hope that helps

Shim washers: 12mm ID 18mm OD 0.1mm thick
Spring washers/crinkle washers: stainless M12 x 18mm x 0.3
O-rings: cant remember!

I sent the motor to: http://www.robsonandfrancisrewinds.co.uk/
They did the following:

• rewound the armature with a slightly larger diameter wire which should give slightly more power
• rebuild the unit with new brushes
• New bearings (unique to JDM cars, were hard to find?)​
• Clean and paint the body​

This was £175 plus vat and postage

THIS ORIENTATION IS NOT CORRECT, it was just a lose assembly. The driver should be horizontal to the ground facing away from the drivers side so the linkage is fully extended and the wipers are fully at the bottom of their travel.

The wheel boxes come in 2 different sizes so check you have the right size washers and snap rings for your car.

 

[rx_dreamer]

Nice one! I wondered about switching out the motor like we do on the Mk1s, this seems more sensible!

 

[Morewhitenoise]

This has been an absolute nightmare to edit.
Apologies i dont have pictures of every step but im sure you can work it out..!

As you can see from the pictures i have a second linkage which i bought as part of this saga.
Its now fully serviced and will be for sale shortly if anyone needs it!

Videos attached of the result.

 

[Morewhitenoise]

Nice one! I wondered about switching out the motor like we do on the Mk1s, this seems more sensible!

If there was an easy direct swap id do that.
As part of this i went deep into researching alternatives and long story short, there arent any.

Some people go single wiper, but the rewind place did a good job and were able to source the bearings needed for a full rebuild so it should be better than new. Only driving in the rain at motorway speeds will tell - ill update when i get to experience that.

 

[JoeLanger]

Nice work pal.

I did mine when I first got the car as they'd all seized up. My motor was knackered too.
Never occurred to me at the time to get it rewound.

Right PITA these wipers, hopefully the boost in power will make them work!

 

[Macer]

Nice write up, definitely on my to-do list

 

[Jake_rorx7]

Thanks for the write up. I've seen people use masking tape on the windscreen to mark wiper position before dissasembly.

On the motor side of things, I wonder if there is a budget friendly DIY option for rebuilding the wiper motor. Possibly just a dissasembly, clean and regrease job?

 

[Morewhitenoise]

Thanks for the write up. I've seen people use masking tape on the windscreen to mark wiper position before dissasembly.

On the motor side of things, I wonder if there is a budget friendly DIY option for rebuilding the wiper motor. Possibly just a dissasembly, clean and regrease job?

I sent mine off because my wipers wouldn't move at all and suspected the motor was fubar (which it was)

I spoke to the rewind place on the phone about what they did so tried to summarise that above based off the invoice.

What they also said was that it was clear the motor had suffered a lot from the years of me trying to use it when the linkage was seized up and super slow. The gears were all worn and bearings needed replacing. Those bearings are apparently very hard to find and they had initially told me they would be unable to replace them. When they received my unit they called their suppliers and managed to track down a small amount of these bearings. If you are brave enough take one apart (because even second hand they are impossible to get hold of) let me know as I have access to all of the biggest bearing suppliers at my new job and can probably track them down. Beyond that, I imagine a clean and grease would help alot too.

 

[MKZ7212]

Anyone know the o-ring size for these yet?

Shim washers: 12mm ID 18mm OD 0.1mm thick
Spring washers/crinkle washers: stainless M12 x 18mm x 0.3
O-rings: ?

 

[Paulm]

 

[Morewhitenoise]

I have checked my emails and purchase history, cant find anything.
next time im in the workshop ill see if i have any spares and measure them.

 

[Brendan]

Is it possible to get the snap rings from anywhere?
One I got out ok the other was rusted badly and snapped