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Wiper motor brushes

Technical issues not related to a DLOC car marque, eg tyres, ethanol, other car makes, etc. and legal, political and insurance
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Alpine Daimler
Posts: 189
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 2:17 pm
Location: A tad west of Hamburg on the Elbe River

Wiper motor brushes

Post by Alpine Daimler »

Hello all

Has anyone renewed their wiper motor brushes from the usual suppliers and found that there are not "pre-curved" to match the commutator diameter but virtually cut straight across and therefore sit with a point contact on the commutator like mine? Did or will it make any difference to the performance?

See picture attached of mine following cleaning and overhaul of motor. I have carefully balanced the brushes I removed on the casing for comparison!

Regards
Rob C.
Attachments
IMG_20190823_115920.jpg

NickDeAth
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Location: South Essex

Re: Wiper motor brushes

Post by NickDeAth »

I think that you will find that nearly all brushes (except very big ones) are supplied with a flat end. They very soon bed in, or you could put a slight curve on the working end with a piece of very fine sand paper, NOT emery. I must have fitted 100's of brushes to DC equipment over the years and I've never had a problem.

Nick
"Nick - do you think you will ever put that old car back together again?"

Sydsmith
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Re: Wiper motor brushes

Post by Sydsmith »

As nick says they usually come straight Rob.

I have always used a very fine half round file of a similar radius to the com the roughly shape the ends, my thinking is it is a bit kinder on the com. Syd
P.S. Never did know why emery will not do.

Flinty
Posts: 90
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2018 7:34 pm
Location: Scarborough

Re: Wiper motor brushes

Post by Flinty »

Syd.
Emery is a non starter for cleaning a com as it is conductive and can cause short circuits between the segments.

Steve,

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Alpine Daimler
Posts: 189
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 2:17 pm
Location: A tad west of Hamburg on the Elbe River

Re: Wiper motor brushes

Post by Alpine Daimler »

Thank you for the replies.

Well, that sounds encouraging Nick! On that basis I shall try them out as they are as I don't want to take a file or anything else to them just yet.

If necessary they are reasonably accessible with the motor in-situ, I'm plain curious to find out if they work as they are!

Regards
Rob C.
PS. I should add, and own up rather sheepishly, that I did gently remove the glaze from the commutator by hand with 600 emery!!! I did clean up afterwards thoroughly with compressed air, contact cleaner with small clean rag and check the slots between the segments with a scalpel, I now very much hope thats ok!!

NickDeAth
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Re: Wiper motor brushes

Post by NickDeAth »

I was told that the carborundum from the emery embeds itself in the copper and then wears the brushes out. Although like you I have in desperation when nothing else has been available used emery. A good clean and blow out afterwards and there have never been any ill effects. Nick
"Nick - do you think you will ever put that old car back together again?"

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Alpine Daimler
Posts: 189
Joined: Thu Feb 18, 2016 2:17 pm
Location: A tad west of Hamburg on the Elbe River

Re: Wiper motor brushes

Post by Alpine Daimler »

Hello

While browsing the forum I thought I would bring this to an end and possibly help anyone searching this topic in the future and report that the motor works very well, cycles per minute are almost as manual spec.

This is another one of those jobs that really is worth the relatively small effort involved.

I removed all parts of the system, removed all the hardened grease from the rack and tubes, cleaned and re-greased, the rack was seized in the tubes causing fuse to blow.
I removed and cleaned the wheel boxes and most importantly, having marked position of the gears on removal of rack, turned them 180 ° before refitting rack meaning the rack worked on "new" unused part of the gears in the wheel boxes. Unfortunately it does not seem to be possible to turn the rack 180°! This now means the mechanics are almost like new, I expect the dry sweep to be as good as wet.

The complete strip down and clean-up of the motor including polishing of end cap and painting of the body really does give the impression of getting a completely overhauled system at a fraction of the price of all new components.

Regards
Rob C.

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