Moose in the boot

[colcol]

Hello all Sud \ Sprint \ 33 drivers with a rear wiper, when you switch on your rear wiper, does it move about 10 mm and stop?, yes mine is the same and it drives me bonkers!, you have to get out at the next set of traffic lights and give it a helping hand, and then you get wet to add to your anger, well i had a look at my wiper blade and found it was all layed over on one side, so instead of the tip of the wiper blade resting on the glass, the blade was layed over on with the sides rubbing instead of the tip causing the underdone BOSCH made in Germany wiper motor to stall, so i turned the blade 180 degrees and when the blade starts to wipe now it straightens up and doesn't cause massive drag, you would most likely find that the motor is designed by Bosch to power a electronic toothbrush, but the Alfa Accountants wanted  a cheap motor, so that was the one Alfa got, note if your wiper blade is over 1 year old just go to Repco and buy a new one, oh um the moose reference was one day my brother was in my 33 with me and i was trying to get the rear wiper to wipe without pretending anything was wrong and the motor kept going MAAH-MAAH-MAAH, to which he made enquires about me keeping livestock in the boot in the form of a moose, Colin.

[Andrew Bose]

Hi Colcol,

I have a silicon wiper blade on mine and have no such problem. How is the arm? I recently put two new Wurth one on the front and it is great, also try a good quality washer additive as it helps the wiper to glide instead of catching. I usually use it if they start to stick even when it is raining.

hope it helps

Andrew

[colcol]

Ok-ok i will fess up at this point, it was the last thing i did to it to avoid the moose in the boot syndrome, 1- i purchased another motor and put it in, result poorer by $50, 2- pulled original one apart and cleaned it and lubricated it, result now understand how wiper motors work, 3- rewired it so that the wires for the wiper motor go a shorter distance at the top of the hatch and eliminate going through those brass spring pins, result, filled in a sunday afternoon by avoiding any real work, 4- cleaned all the connectors and relays and fuses in engine bay, result they needed cleaning anyway, 5- put even more washer fluid in hatch washer bottle, result, the hatch will now rust even faster than before, 6- bent the wiper arm in all different directions, result wiper still won't work, but when it did, it managed to scratch rear window, 7- polished out scratches with toothpaste, result, car now has nice breath, 8- tried all different types of wiper blades, result, now on first name terms with the lady at Repco, 9- Rainexed the back screen, result when wiper manages to complete one wipe it is now noisy and chatters and is competing with moose for most volume, 10- finally, turned wiper 180 degrees, result, moose is quieter and wiper wipes, you have been warned, Colin.

[branko.gt]

Ok-ok i will fess up at this point, it was the last thing i did to it to avoid the moose in the boot syndrome, 1- i purchased another motor and put it in, result poorer by $50, 2- pulled original one apart and cleaned it and lubricated it, result now understand how wiper motors work, 3- rewired it so that the wires for the wiper motor go a shorter distance at the top of the hatch and eliminate going through those brass spring pins, result, filled in a sunday afternoon by avoiding any real work, 4- cleaned all the connectors and relays and fuses in engine bay, result they needed cleaning anyway, 5- put even more washer fluid in hatch washer bottle, result, the hatch will now rust even faster than before, 6- bent the wiper arm in all different directions, result wiper still won't work, but when it did, it managed to scratch rear window, 7- polished out scratches with toothpaste, result, car now has nice breath, 8- tried all different types of wiper blades, result, now on first name terms with the lady at Repco, 9- Rainexed the back screen, result when wiper manages to complete one wipe it is now noisy and chatters and is competing with moose for most volume, 10- finally, turned wiper 180 degrees, result, moose is quieter and wiper wipes, you have been warned, Colin.

thanks Col, had few chuckles while reading this

[colcol]

And you have heard of the saying, "leave well enough alone", no i haven't either, so the back wiper is working good, "moose in the boot" is quite, and i was down at Repco and i saw these new teflon coated wipers blades, so i thought "why not give these a go", so i put one on and they are new and soft and sticky and they stick to the back screen, causing the wiper motor to stall and the moose to start going MAAHH-MAAHH", so its off with the new teflon impregnated wiper and back on with the old weather hardened wiper with low friction and the wiper is now working again, a wise man [obviously not me] said that if it aint broke then don't fix it, wise words indeed, Colin.

[colcol]

So anyway, the rear wiper is starting to stick again, so i turned the wiper insert around so it is not layed over to one side causing to much drag on the motor by all the friction, you want the end of the wiper wiping the screen, not the whole side of the insert, so i noticed that there was quite a bit of pressure on the wiper arm, so i took off the arm and looked at the spring and decided there was too much spring pressure, using some vice grips i managed to remove the spring and with my spring collection, [from ebay], i managed to install a spring about half the diameter of the original one, installed it on the car and the wiper wiped first go, so there was too much friction on the wiper blade with the undersized wiper motor, it seemed to wipe ok, but will have to wait until it rains to see if the wiper wipes the water off the window or just skates over it, it has never worked properly ever since i have had the car, thats 27 years now, Colin.

[Ricky Ricardo]

The previous owner of my sprint gave up early removing the whole unit installing a plastic bung in the glass.

[colcol]

Welcome to the forum Ricky....if thats your real name, introduce yourself in the 'introduce yourself' part of the forum, give us a few posts on your car, Colin.

[colcol]

So anyhow, i am driving down the road one day, and blue flashing lights appear at the back, so i pull over and the nice Policeman asks me why am i flashing my headlights, is it to warn other drivers about the $afety camera up ahead, and i tell him that i wasn't flashing my headlights, because i couldn't see a $peed camera anywhere, so he says if i don't fess up, he will find something wrong with my car, [something wrong with a 33???, he would have to look hard!!!], so after about 5 minutes of polite and firm points of view exchanged, we agreed to disagree, i fessed up to flashing my headlights to avoid a roadworthy inspection and drove off.
So i few months later, i am pushing the rear wiper button, looking at the reflection on the wall of the garage, and in unison, the headlights flash when the wiper button is pressed.
It seems the Police were right about the unauthorised headlight flashing.
So after a bit of thought, i concluded that the wiper wire must have shorted out against the headlight wire, and looking at the wire coming out of the wiper switch, its a bit on the thin side, and looks to have got hot, due to the lack of electric carrying abilities.
I pulled the car apart to try and trace the short, but i guestimated that it was faulty where the wires come out of the firewall on the drivers side.
The wire goes from the centre binnacle down to the floor, on the drivers side, out into the bulkhead, up past the battery, through the firewall, back inside to the left side of the car, along the left side of the car, into the boot, to the washer bottle on the left side, then up to the C pillar, and through the roof lining, out through the roof panel, into the hatch and on to the wiper motor.
To avoid having to pull all the carpets out to find the short, i decided to run a thicker wire from the switch straight to the wire loom on the left side, under the floor, connected it up and it worked, the thicker wire over a shorter distance = less voltage drop.
My apoligies to the Police, Colin.

[four90s]

Hi Col,

I just read the whole post and I now understand why my 916 GTV doesn't have a rear windscreen wiper (which it could really use).

Alfa Romeo obviously tried and tried with the 33 but couldn't get it right and gave up on rear wipers.

Steve
Adelaide.

[colcol]

But then they put rear wipers on 147's and 156 sportswagons, they just would have had to put heavier gauge wire on the massively long, about 5 metres long wire from the switch to the wiper motor, but it was 1984 and they were broke, and the accountants were trying to keep the receivors and administrators away, thats what led to stupid decisions such as the well hated ARNA, Colin.

[colcol]

Another thing to add, the rear wiper switch had dirty burnt contacts, but being an 80's 33, the switch is wonderfully low tech, you can pull it apart and fix it.
On the twin carb Sud i used to scoot around in, the rear wiper, that worked better than the 33 had a 2 position button, touch it and the wiper wiped, push the switch and you got wipe and wash.
On the restoration of the 33 wiper switch, i decided to convert it to a Sud like switch, so i lengthened the wiper contact, and shortened the washer contact, so that you touch the switch and it wipes, push the switch and the MOOSE comes alive and sprays washer fluid on the back window.
The reason that Alfa Romeo had it like that i suppose, is so that, the back window gets water on the back screen, before it starts to wipe, and not scratch the glass.
The reality was, the washer motor takes all the power off the motor, and there is nothing left for the wiper, and it just sits there, with not enough juice, so you have to split up their usage into 2, touch the switch to get the wiper moving and push the switch for some water.....just like it was done on the Sud all those years ago, Colin.