MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - MGA Wiper Motor Removal

I have a 1960 MGA 1600. The wiper motor has failed. It just stopped and got extremely hot. The self park feature only worked intermittently and they would not always turn off. My question is how do I remove it, bearing in mind my car has a servo fitted. Did all MGA's have a brake servo? The car is RHD.
John Stephens

John,
The brake servo makes a simple job a bit more difficult. If you post a picture we can make suggestions.
Basically the motor can be removed with the drive wire - three electrical connections - three bolts on the motor and both wiper arms. Its a good opportunity to re-grease the wire and possibly replace a wheelbox.
Roger
Roger Walker

John
Cant answer your immediate problem I'm afraid as I dont have a servo.
But whilst replacing the motor itself is easy enough, I found replacing the wire in the tubed sleeve a nightmare. Plenty of patience and grease was the answer for me.
I assumed in my case the motor failed as the wire became seized in the tubing.

Good luck
Graham V

John, here's a link which will provide the wiper motor disassembly steps; unfortunately can't help with the servo question:

https://mgaguru.com/mgtech/electric/et113.htm

Nick Kopernik

I’ve never seen an MGA with a brake servo. However, unless there’s something I’m missing, on a RHD car, the master cylinder and I’m assuming the servo are on the right side. Therefore, removing the wiper motor should be much simpler than removing it on a LHD car.

I just had my wiper motor out and put another one in and my car is LHD. I found that leaving the lower bracket attached to the heater shelf and removing the nut and washer that attach the motor to the lower bracket gives enough clearance to remove the motor. That is, after you drop the brake and clutch pedals and remove the rods on a LHD car. Since these are on the right side in your car, you shouldn’t have to do that.

You do need to follow the steps listed here -
http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/electric/et113.htm

Except leave the lower bracket attached to the car.

Jim
JL Cheatham

Hi John,

I know this is possibly the last thing on your mind but if you are replacing the wiper motor, you may want to consider replacing it with a 2 speed motor (MGB). A lot of people have done this and there is ALOT of info on Barney's website to look through...

Enjoy....


Aleks
Aleks Stojanovic

John
I dont have a brake servo and so l can't visualise the access problem, can you post picture for us?

The std MGA wiper motor is easy to remove on a RHD car if you remove it complete with its mounting bracket. You disconnect the 3 wires, take off the small nuts from the captive studs on the rear of the bracket that come down from the bulkhead under inside the passenger footwell.

Remove the single 1/2" AF size captive stud at the front of the bracket.

Then you unscrew the big nut on the flexy drive.
If you remove the wiper arms you should be able to lift up the motor on its bracket so that the front 2 studs are out of their holes, then the motor/ bracket assembly can be pulled out of the car complete with the flexy drive.
You will see the wiper arm posts spun as the drive is pulled out.

Don't forget to post a picture of where your servo is sited so that we can better understand your access problem.
Cheers
Colyn
Colyn Firth

Thanks all for your advice and comments etc.. The "Remote Brake Booster Servo" was apparently an after market accessory. It is bolted to the bulkhead between the heater and the wiper motor. I therefore had to remove it to get at the wiper motor. This entailed disconnecting brake pipes and bleeding the brakes on refitting. All completed and working now.......
John Stephens

This thread was discussed between 16/07/2019 and 01/08/2019

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.