I've got a classic wiper mechanism but could do with knowing the best postion for the wheelboxes to get the best sweep for the windscreen. If anyone has wipers on their Indy please could you let me know how far each wheelbox is from the centre line (easier to measure than the curved sides) and also how far they are in front of the screen / behind the endge of the scuttle.

I'm also planning to fit a classic Mini heater. If anyone has one of these in place it would be great to have some pictures or information.

Chris

Look at my wipers and do the opposite!


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do they clear the screen ok Stu ?

Not great!

They work fine but leave a gap on the drivers side - I should have had them parking the other way.

Too late now though!

Stu

Any more- i'm looking for measurements from someone with wipers that work well so i can reduce the risk of getting them wrong. it would be good to get it right first time

Iscmatt has a good post on this somewhere when he fitted his wipers. I think it has measurements in there somehwere. The thread is here: http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=95009

Mine worked well - don't have the measurements though

hope these pics help


Screen 1


Screen 2


Screen 4

I've got a wiper mechanism sitting here ready to fit and have worked out the wiring but what i cant work out though is where to drill the holes in the scuttle.

As far as I can see from photos the passenger side spindle is usually a bit nearer the centre of the windscreen than the drivers side spindle is.

ICSMatt's thread is good but he doesn't have measurements and has since sold the car.

Please could someone measure the distances between the centre of the windscreen and the driver and passenger wiper spindles.

Thanks in advance

Just measured mine. Standard MK scuttle, wipers are fitted symetrically and are 29cm apart (well, the spindles are). It will take quite some fiddling to get the wipe angles more or less right. Try to get the spindles ar perpendicular to the screen to keep the angle between the blades and the screen as constant as posible. O, and park the wipers on the side the steering wheel is on as you will probably have a quite significant dead zone on the opposite side.

Good luck, it's a fiddly job...

Thats great, many thanks for the advice and taking the measurements. My linkage has been cut down to 26.5 between the spindles but I should be able to replicate the same level of coverage that you are getting on the drivers side by moving everything a couple of cm away from the centre line.

Ive just found the classic Mini wiper arms don't fit my spindles. The wheelboxes are Lucas part 72831 which are no longer listed but by all accounts may have originated from a Triumph Herald/ Spitfire rather than a Mini. Rather than trying to source wiper arms to fit which could be a bit of a lottery Ive ordered a new pair of classic Mini wheelboxes. As soon as they arrive I'll make a mock up of the screen and scuttle from thin plywood and then fit to the car.

I'm using relays to prevent the damage to the Ford stalk switch contacts. The way these wiper motors are wired makes it particularly easy to add relays given there is already a permanent live feed in it's loom.

quote:

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Originally posted by Not Anumber
Thats great, many thanks for the advice and taking the measurements. My linkage has been cut down to 26.5 between the spindles but I should be able to replicate the same level of coverage that you are getting on the drivers side by moving everything a couple of cm away from the centre line.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Not Anumber
Ive just found the classic Mini wiper arms don't fit my spindles. The wheelboxes are Lucas part 72831 which are no longer listed but by all accounts may have originated from a Triumph Herald/ Spitfire rather than a Mini. Rather than trying to source wiper arms to fit which could be a bit of a lottery Ive ordered a new pair of classic Mini wheelboxes. As soon as they arrive I'll make a mock up of the screen and scuttle from thin plywood and then fit to the car.

I'm using relays to prevent the damage to the Ford stalk switch contacts. The way these wiper motors are wired makes it particularly easy to add relays given there is already a permanent live feed in it's loom.

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Here's what I did- worked well. Work out where you think the rocker box needs to be based upon where you want the blades to wipe. Do the passenger side first and measure how far off the end result is, then compensate when you do the driver side to get it so it exactly wipes up to the edge of the surround. Job done.

I put my wheelboxes touching the bottom of the screen, tucked under it a bit, that way the blades don't leave an unswept area below them as the pivot point is as close as you can get.

What I did is this (roughly - I think - ish):

Cut up an old wheelbox so I could slip it into a bezel with a wiper arm on and pivot the blade around to test the sweep. (does that make sense?)

Figured I'd need the wheelboxes tucked under the screen as far as possible.

Placed a blade vertically on the screen, blade was full screen height top to bottom.

Put my half wheelbox-bezel-arm bit on the scuttle, turned so the arm was vertical, marked up and cut arm to length so it fitted to the blade mount (blade still vertical touching top of screen)

Mounted blade to shortened arm and half wheelbox thingy, put blade hoprizontal now, moved its position across the scuttle until it almost touched the far O/S of the screen.

Marked up the position of the wheelbox, drilled and fitted it.

Checked that it swept from tip of blade touching O/S of screen frame and blade just missed top of screen frame.

Got a protractor and marked 130 degrees from horizontal using the wheelbox as centre - to work out where the blade would finish its sweep, marked this line on he screen (I used 130 degree boxes - biggest sweep available)

Copied the first arm I made - so I had 2 the same

Mounted second arm in half wheelbox doofer, positioned it on the scuttle with a blade, moved it across so that when it started its sweep it just overlapped where the other blade finished its sweep, and I mean *just*

Marked scuttle and drilled and fitted second wheelbox.

Measured between wheelboxes under scuttle and cut bundy tube to suit

When all the rest of the wipers were fitted and working, I observed the sweep which was as predicted, but I needed to trim maybe 1/2" from the N/S of each blade (I used the single cuttable type) as at full sweep they rode onto the lower edge of the screen frame.


This has resulted in excellent coverage. The unswept areas are a tiny bit above each wheelbox which is inevitable, an arc in the O/S top corner of the screen, a tiny triangle at the top of the screen abover the blade overlap which is behind the mirror, and the area where the tax disc holder goes.

The blades sweep all the way over to the N/S atopping about an inch, maybe inch and a half from the screen frame



Sorry for the longwinded post but maybe it'll help

Stott

^^^ Very informative post and I guess that is the way to do it.

I'll start fitting my heater (mini type) this weekend and will report back once I make some progress.

All this talk of wipers and heaters;whatever next? Central locking and cruise control?

I've got a cd player, heater, wipers, roof, padded carpeted interior etc, it's all quite civilised in there!

Thanks Stott. That was really descriptive and not at all long winded.

Advice so far has been to place the wiper spindles about 2 inches in front of the screen. Trouble is my screen is positioned a bit further back than standard (to suit dimmensions of my side screens and hood) and 2 inches forward is where the 'step' bit in the scuttle happens to be.

So, is it better to locate the spindles closer to the screen (about an inch and a quarter) or further away (about 2 and a half inches) ? What would work best

So is your screen mounted on the high bit of the scuttle?

Yes, thats right. The screen is mounted on the high bit of the scuttle.

In that case it might make sense to mount the wipers in the vertical bit of the scuttle assuming the spindles would fit.

Stu

It's a good suggestion and would make a neat installation but unfortunately this wouldn't give enough height clearance for the back of the wheelboxes and bundy tube. It looks like they will have to go into the horizontal section either just in front of or just behind the step in the scuttle. Would the wiper arms still work if the spindles were further away from the screen or closer to it ? Interested in what people have done that works ok ?

Heater....

A 12A Mazda Rotary puts out an incredible amount of heat.....

Hi,

I promised I'd get back to you after mounting my heater. I've gone for a mini-type heater. It fits neatly on top of the tunnel with half of it protruding through the bulkhead into the engine bay. Fitted a duct to the inlet through the bulkhead so the heater uses air from the interior and not from the engine bay (an instant IVA fail and all-round stupid idea, anyway...). I've not bothered with a heater valve but have rather made the fan speed controllable using a cheap PWM control unit off Ebay. Works well and the heate can still be completely turned off by moving the flap to the "off" position. The controls are underneath the dash and are easily reached, even when strapped in. I'll shoot some pictures for you to look at when I get a chance.

Sebastiaan

Stu. It was a great idea of yours and thinking about it som more I realised it was the best bet. It's all in place and i just need to find some 9" blades.
Is the thinking to use the vintage style solidly mounted flat wiper blades for use on flat screens (Demon Tweaks sell these as Caterham blades) or would normal (sprung) blades be as good ?

Not sure, but I think the flat ones would be fine. The arms are sprung anyway, not the blades.

Stu