In one of my random moments of madness, i decided to refurbish my Acad's wiper motor and associated gubbins as the wipers were moving sloooooooow.

The strip-out and motor refurb went ok (although i have a small question on that later when i can get a camera), but when i turned my attention to the spindles, i was stumped as to how to strip them down to clean and re-lube.

In the haynes manual, the pictures clearly show a nut holding it all together, but my spindles appear to be riveted together at each end, so i can't work out how to get them apart. I know they need some level of work, as when i rotate them by hand, i can feel a slight resistance/grinding but at the moment I've hit a complete impasse :/

Any ideas?

hi smyth my bro has the same van as you and had a prob with the spindles too i don,t think they come apart he just oiled them
also the motor wouldnt stop once switched on
theres a little set of contacts within the motor that need cleaning, once done all was ok

Hmm, not so good. i'm wondering if just soaking them in a tub of warm engine oil might be as good an idea as any, hope it soaks in and clears out any crap?

It's only the old ones that have a nut and come apart. I disassembled a pair like yours, ground the peened end off, replaced the O-rings, lubed them, and welded them back together. It wasn't worth it. just soak them in oil.

It was the o-ring replacement i was after as much as anything - my van pisses water in (heavy rain will yield a good 2 inches in the toe area...) and i'm convinced its a 50/50 blame-share between the o/s wiper spindle and the rusty blob thats creeping its way out from under the windscreen rubber. Figured if i could sort the spindle it'd be half the battle

Ok, well after a good soak in oil, a wipe-down and the whole unit being re-assembled and re-installed, somehow the wipers are worse than before?? Much noisier and a tad jerky on the 'up' stroke (clockwise when sitting in the van) and if anything they seem to be going slower...!

I'm stumped. I know i put it back together the same as it came apart, and I can't imagine replacing the black earwax that used to be the grease inside the gearbox with new would have had any detrimental effects. I even went to the trouble of cleaning of the contacts and brushes to ensure good connection.

Any ideas, folks? I'm stumped. Could i have over-tightened something?

Does the motor turn happily when dis connected from the atm between two spindles, and vice versa..?

I'll have a fiddle in the morning - too wet and windy outside to faff about and leave 2 holes in the front of the van while i investigate

Oh, and just in case things go tits-up, does anyone know if the wiper linkages from a 2cv will work as a direct replacement?? I'm sure i have a load of them kicking about in a box somewhere...

Nope,
I've had to rescue a $ity-rebuilt Dyane with that setup in the past.
Everything's fine unless you actually switch them on...

ken