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Gentlemen,
My wiper motor gets stuck and smokes every once in a while when I try to start it. If I remove the cover and turn the armature by hand until it feels free then it starts OK for about 6 or 8 tries. and then gets stuck again. I'm pretty sure I need to clean it but haven't read here or elsewhere how to go about doing this. I've bought "Gunk Energized Electric Motor Cleaner". Do I need to buy something else before I start disassembly, such as bearings/retainers? Any help will be very appreciated.

I found my armature needed realigned to get it to even start. once I did that, cleaned, and lubed everything it ran faster than my other pinzs wiper motor. Been a couple years now and still no other issues with it.

OK, so how do you "realign the armature"?

While you are playing around with the motor, don't forget to check the arms and the nuts both inside and out of
the shaft going through the windscreen frame. Loose nuts are a problem area. OK...

Oh yah, loose nuts can be a problem.

Couldn't resist

Yes, also nuts on the loose and lost/missing nuts. You guys are funny.
Anyway, I drenched the motor with the spray motor/contact cleaner on site twice and blew out the excess. I loosened the two rear brasslike support screws and tried to play around with the armature but there is no leeway, so when the screws get tightened again it is as before. Haven't lubricated it yet. I'll have to take it completely apart this weekend. Thanks to all.

Sounds like its binding. It likes to tweak itself towards the passenger side. The rubber dampners give just a tad. I loosened mine, pulled it to the side and tightened it down. fixed the issue.

Took mine completly apart and cleaned out all the crusty grease. Then reassembled it with fresh high temp Moly grease. Unit runs perfect now.
These are the same motors that are used in vintage VW's and Porsche's so if you need parts for them they are cheaper to go through a VW supply company. The little spring that hold the carbon pads against the windings sometimes breaks due to to much electrical heat. If you need one of those springs or any other internal part contact Don West at 503-434-3530 Nick named "DL West the Wiper Guy" in the vintage VW world. He is the athority in my opinion.
Of course he does full rebuilds with warenties as well.

Interesting Shawn - Do you know if the pivot piece that goes through the windshield frame is also available from the VW world? (the portion the wiper arm connects to)
They are incredibly expensive here ($150)

audiocontr wrote:Interesting Shawn - Do you know if the pivot piece that goes through the windshield frame is also available from the VW world? (the portion the wiper arm connects to)
They are incredibly expensive here ($150)

If yours are anything like mine were you could weld them up and turn them back down.

It is $161 from SAV...buy two...

audiocontr wrote:Interesting Shawn - Do you know if the pivot piece that goes through the windshield frame is also available from the VW world? (the portion the wiper arm connects to)
They are incredibly expensive here ($150)

Just the motors are the same, none of the linkage pieces look that familiar. Don does have access to alot of SWF NOS parts though so it might be worth contacting and asking if he has anything that looks like what you need.

OK, so I took the motor apart (not the gearbox) and cleaned it thoroughly, though it wasn't dirty at all. Greased it well (the armature shaft) and put it back together. Not once. Maybe 50 times in four hours. Trial and error. The main problem was the two screws holding the brass fixture that holds the brushes. At last, when I was about to give up for the day because the motor was a lot worse than before, something miraculous happened. I removed the two "shims" between the brass module and the magnet base, They are rectangular in shape and a few mms thick and are some sort of an adjustment feature. The motor works as never before. The armature is so loose inside of the magnets and the wipers move so fast that when I turn the wipers off the motor keeps spinning due to inertia (I guess) and leaves the wipers at half-mast. Sorry, but I don't know what I did right. Insist.

Forgot to mention that when the armature is stuck and you turn off the motor it still has power until the wipers reach their resting point. Try not to get your fingers caught between the armature and magnet. It's better to use some rag or something to try to turn the armature by hand.

I took my motor apart and discovered two stripped gears. Sent the motor to Don the Wiper Guy and he fixed it, using gears from a Porsche motor. He did a one-hour bench test and also confirmed that the motor stops in the park position - very important, as previously noted. For that reason, I'm thinking about adding a "kill" switch to the power supply ( some day!!), so if the motor gets stalled again, I won't "smoke it." Actually I'm researching a speed control, or maybe a speed and interval control and on/off. Anyone's ideas/info would be greatly appreciated.

Cost was $70 plus $20 two-way shipping. He says that he can usually rebuild these motors for $60 to $90.

He's a great guy and really knows his stuff.

Ben