Hello together, I tried this question already some time ago, but got zero response. Seems, that driving in the rain is not very popular. But I try it once more. After successful cleaning and regreasing my window lifters, what made them significantly faster, it came to my mind, that the poor performance of my wipers may be caused by a similar issue. And it would not be amiss cleaning the wiper motor's gear mechanism and lubricating the whole mechanism after almost 40 years. With the engine not running and dry windshield, my wipers just stop. Did anyone of you ever remove the wiper motor or even the whole mechanism? If I look behind the cover behind the left front wheel I expect a major PITA. Thanks in advance for any hints or help regarding this procedure. Best Regards from Germany Martin
Hey Martin, Not much to add, but I'll add it anyway... Seems like I've read that the 308 wiper motor can suffer from old grease, similar to the windows. It's not just Ferrari, I've disassembled it in a Miata and found it had the same issue/potential cure. I've never considered dealing with it in the Ferrari, as it's a pain to get to the motor, pull, reinstall, get everything synchronized again, etc. And I avoid rain whenever possible. But if you're looking to improve it, I think you're on the right track.
Hi Martin, yes I’ve removed mine from the car and yes it’s a PITA. I dismantled the linkages and re greased the spindles. I also found one of the circlips that retains the spindles was broken and the short arms on the back of the spindles are basically a press fit to the spindles and over 35 years had worn loose so I took the opportunity to weld them thus getting rid of the slop that causes the wipers to stop in slightly different positions and fit new circlips. My car is RHD so I don’t know how different LHD is, but to get it out requires removing the front inner wheel arch, removing/getting out of the way the windscreen demist ducting and from memory unbolting the motor from the mechanism whilst it’s still all up in the arch/under the windscreen and then trying to manoeuvre it out of the car. It’s not fun. Mine’s still out of the car if you would a pic of anything regards Richard Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
Hi Richard, thanks! Though it sounds disgusting The loose spindles I know from my Alfa. I did weld them too. Pictures are always welcome. Thorn, I made it on my Alfa and it was probably as easy as on your Miata. But since the result was so effective I would really like to deal with it on the 308.
Oh! I forgot to mention: once you have the motor out and cleaned, test it on the bench before putting in back in the car. Guess how I know.
My Lancia Scorpion uses the exact same wiper motor as on my 308, and when my Lancia wipers didn’t work as fast or as well, I found out that the grounding is very poor, after cleaning all the contacts specially the ground everything went back to normal (fast) so, check your grounds too as it might help.
I thought the wipers were like the steering heavy feel issue? Poor at low speed but over 120mph they really lighten and utilise the cars aero to remove water really well [emoji16][emoji16] That aside, given the use of relays for windows (even after removing solid grease and retention of wires), I wonder if there is something there too icw rebuilding, which sounds like an agreed PITA. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Heed the grounding comment. I had a GT4 back in the 1980s and the wiper motor and gears partially melted thanks to a high resistance problem. There was high resistance between the contact and the race that determined 'home' position, and that resulted in excessive heat which melted (and burned) part of the assembly.
Just came across this... Did exactly the same thing to my wipers. Getting the linkage out was a bastard - I've got power steering as well, so lots more to move out of the way. Putting it back in was worse. What's got me now is getting the inner arch back in - it's like everything magically changed shape while it was out! I'm about to get the sledge hammer
