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MG MGA - disconnect wiper motor drive cable

I want to pull out my wiper motor to clean it up and wire brush/paint the heater box shelf. I've got the MC out, and the wiper motor bracket loose, but I cannot seem to disconnect the drive cable from the motor. I must be missing something easy...but, what?
rpb bunch

Easiest thing to do is to just unscrew the outer cable housing from the motor/gearbox, remove the wipers, then the inner cable still attached to the wiper motor should pull out from the cable housing.

I believe you need to disassemble the wiper gearbox to disconnect the inner cable. Barney most likely has several pages about it on his site.
Jeff Schultz

Jeff says -- "I believe you need to disassemble the wiper gearbox to disconnect the inner cable".

-- Yes that is correct, but if you are just having a clean up, then it will be less work to strip it from the outer and leave it attached.

Barry
Barry Gannon

When I tried pulling the drive cable... the DPO struck again. John


jjb Backman

Whoa, that's interesting. Any idea what the cable clamp was supposed to do? There's no exposed area on the wiper drive cable if it's properly installed so I'm guessing some of the casing is missing. Did the wipers actually function?
Amazing some of the stuff you see people do....
Cheers,
GTF
G T Foster

The DPO had cut out a section of the center tube to clamp the drive cable together. It never worked since he installed a later model MGB wiper motor and never got around to sorting out the wiring.

Just one of many DPO adventures... if only she could talk, there must be many tales to tell........

John
jjb Backman

Pulled the wiper arms per GURU site instructions. Everything came apart like a champ! Now, clean up & re-assy is in order.

Just pop off the 2 wiper arms, allowing the splined hubs to spin freely, and the inner cable pulls out of the sheath. the inner cable has a spiral wound OD that engages gear teeth in the wiper pivot bodies.

Thanks, Barney!

I wish I had a nickel for everytime that I've said/thought that...


rpb bunch

rpb bunch, thanks for starting this post it encouraged me to check out why my wipers worked but never parked. See the creative wiring that I discovered, all done it seems to by-pass the fact that the internal brown wire bridging terminal 1 to the parking ground had sheared at the contact end. The yellow spade clip had been taped with insulation tape and a connector block returning terminal 1 to ground! The repair continues...

Kevin


K Garner

John

You will find the wiring layout for the later B motor and its switch either on my site or on Barney

Dominic
dominic clancy

Yep...a bonus result of pulling & cleaning the motor was reparing the park circuit wire between the motor body and the park 'commutator'. Mine was completely severed! Works great, now...


rpb bunch

...used to look like this...



rpb bunch

Looks like a good result to me, rather glad that mine had been converted to RH Drive given how close the MC appears to the motor body.


Kevin
K Garner

This thread reminded me of my introduction to MGAs and the web. The wiper motor and wiring has to be one of the more messed up bits on our cars. Here in Texas, you need working wipers to pass inspection. I found getting the wiper mess figured out to be the biggest barrier to getting my car legal !

I was completely stumped - the steps to get me out of the mess was the first advice I got from Barney. I stumbled on his site and got a personal e-mail within the hour with the solution, plus pointers on how to find this BBS and other sources of information out there. To me, this shows the character of a guy like Barney, willing to patiently help out a newcomer to the world of MGAs and the web.





Chuck Mosher

Dominic,

I considered using the MGB wiper motor but it was going to cost me more for a new drive cable and parts than a good used MGA wiper motor. I seem to recall that you even offered me a spare center drive tube.

In the end the B motor went to someone on the message board looking to do a two speed upgrade and I found a used A motor with just the center drive tube on eBay for a good price.

John
jjb Backman

This thread was discussed between 28/08/2010 and 08/09/2010

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