Allegro Club International

[Rich Hanlon]

Hi folks, been ages since I've been on, but haven't had any problems!

This one is starting to annoy me though.
There's loads of free play in the position of the windscreen wiper arms - such that, (unless the wondscreen is totally sopping wet), the wipers 'park' about six inches up the screen. I have to reach out of the drivers' side window and pull them down to the bottom. Particularly annoying if you've just used your washer jets which are pretty busy at this time of year.

I can't adjust the positions of the arms on the splines because then, the arms would reach far enough 'up' the screen on the up-stroke, and also the arms would then hit the lower screen seal when the screen was totally wet.

A Minor I had used to have some procedure regarding wheel boxes behind the dash to improve this situation. Is this applicable/ Any other ideas?

Cheers folks!

Rich
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Rich Hanlon
Series III 1275
Derbyshire

[Laurence]

Hi Rich,

As it's a fairly simple job, I would renew the parking switch to see if that fixes it, before you start changing the wheelboxes etc.

The same switch is used on Minis & MGBs etc. & is the 'clip fitting' type 520160A which can be obtained from Moss or MiniSpares etc.

[M. Irvine]

Rich,

It may be worth trying the following first.

Remove the wiper blades.
Remove wiper motor lid to gain access to the rack cable.
Remove circlip and connecting rod, and carefully pull out the rack cable.
Rotate each of the wheel box drive splines 180 deg or so.
Lubricate the rack cable with a soft grease and refit it. If possible, rotate the rack cable 180 deg also. (Doing this you are using part of the rack and pinions which have probably never been used before).
Refit the connecting rod, circlip and lid etc and test operation before refitting the blades.

If excessive slack is still evident, and assuming the problem is not the wiper arms themselves I would next change the rack cable.

I hope this helps you.

Merv.
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ALLEGRO = Agile, Lively, Legendary, Economical, Genial, Reliable & Outstanding.

[Rich Hanlon]

Thanks for the replies guys. It does feel more like a wear issue somewhere in the system as M.I describes, more than a park location issue. It doesn't come up to a hard stop which is why I think there must be some slack. Yet if you (manually) push the arms down to the bottom of the screen, it does come to a hard stop - which is when I assume the wheels come up against the 'rack' at the park stop.

Will give it a go.

If it comes to it, where would be the best place to source a new cable/ rack from? I wouldn't know where to start!

Cheers ears,

Rich
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Rich Hanlon
Series III 1275
Derbyshire

[M. Irvine]

Rich,

The part number is 37H5208. If you do a 'Google search' with that number you will find that they are available from a number of sources at just over £7. It will need to be carefully cut to length as this part fits a wide range of BMC/BL cars. This is the 'cheap' option which normally solves the problem, if you rotate the wheel boxes as stated previously. Thank heavens for the Parts CD available from our Spares Secretary!

One more thing, I meant to add is that due to the design the wipers may not always park at the very lowest point, when the screen is dry. However, it does sound as if yours is showing signs of wear.

Hope this helps.

Merv.
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ALLEGRO = Agile, Lively, Legendary, Economical, Genial, Reliable & Outstanding.

[Rich Hanlon]

Carried out the procedure last night. Seems to have taken out some of the free play, but they still stop a way up the screen. Tried the wiper motor with the rack disconnected - park switch OK, so it must just be one of those things. Funny - you never see pics of other allegros with theis problem. Just something to live with I suppose!!

R
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Rich Hanlon
Series III 1275
Derbyshire

[Laurence]

The parking switch will still 'switch' but won't 'park' correctly because the little plastic finger wears away.

There will always be a lot more freeplay in the old Allegro wiper mechanism (even when it's new) compared to modern rod operated wipers, obviously when there's too much freeplay in your wiper mechanism, it can cause problems like escribing a bigger arc so the blades will collide with the screen rubber etc.

[nick23]

Hi ppl iv just done my wipers the motor n the wheel box thanks 2 laurance gordon wil b back on the road again soon ready 4 the run in feb

[Rich Hanlon]

Aha - I see - so it still functions as a switch but could introduce some of the wapping about. Right - will give it a go. Eeee-baaay!
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Rich Hanlon
Series III 1275
Derbyshire