Wiper Motor and Transmission

[Three Dee]

There are times when the Bentley manual is worse than useless.

The wipers on our '86 E30 are failing, so I looked at the Bentley, then after trying to follow its instructions, checked to see what you all had to say, and there ain't no doubt about it: Removing the wiper motor and transmission is no easy job.

So far I've been able to free the passenger side, but the driver's side resolutely refuses to let the spindle drop down through the hole in the cowl far enough for me to finish removing the assembly. Right now, I am trying to talk myself out of taking a drift and a hammer and creating the necessary clearance to finish removal.

Any of you all got any better ideas? (Than beating on the car with a hammer, that is. )

[Jeffnhiscars]

remove the motor first and I believe you may need to remove the blower as well to get the linkage out

[thejlevie]

The blower must be removed to get the linkage out.

[monty11ez]

Are you sure it is the wiper motor? My friend had to replace the relay because his wipers were intermittent.

[Three Dee]

I've already removed the blower motor and housing, else I wouldn't be able to get the passenger side of the mechanism free.. My wife tells me when the wipers quit, halfway across the windshield, that smoke began coming out from under the hood. Of course, since the cowl vents are at the trailing edge of the hood, that would explain what she saw. Also, I can smell it when I drive. Since then, the wipers have started working again, but there is no doubt the motor is weak.

Removing the motor from the transmission looks like a blast.

[Jeffnhiscars]

Removing the motor from the transmission looks like a blast.

The motor itself only has 3 10mm bolts which are fairly easy to remove by feel. You can either remove the motor arm (that bolts to the drive shaft) by unbolting it too or popping the rubber bushing off. The bushing WILL NOT pry off but requires a sharp snap as do the similar bushings on the linkage itself. When you get the drive arm off you will see what looks like tapered splines or whats left of them and think they are stripped. The fact is that the arm, which is about $11 from the dealer, does not come splined, but gets that way when you tighten it in the the motor drive shaft (which IS splined). The arm is softer than the drive shaft and is designed to be a breakaway feature to protect the motor in the event that the linkage jams. Whether its reusable or not is a judgement call.

Hopefully this spares you the days I spent figuring out WTF was going on :-)

PS the plastic motor cover is best removed first and replaced last. It comes out with a bit of contorting

[Three Dee]

The motor itself only has 3 10mm bolts which are fairly easy to remove by feel. You can either remove the motor arm (that bolts to the drive shaft) by unbolting it too or popping the rubber bushing off. The bushing WILL NOT pry off but requires a sharp snap as do the similar bushings on the linkage itself. When you get the drive arm off you will see what looks like tapered splines or whats left of them and think they are stripped. The fact is that the arm, which is about $11 from the dealer, does not come splined, but gets that way when you tighten it in the the motor drive shaft (which IS splined). The arm is softer than the drive shaft and is designed to be a breakaway feature to protect the motor in the event that the linkage jams. Whether its reusable or not is a judgement call.

Hopefully this spares you the days I spent figuring out WTF was going on :-)

PS the plastic motor cover is best removed first and replaced last. It comes out with a bit of contorting

I'll get into that this morning, I think. I'll have to push the mechanism back on place on the donor car so I can get that (expletive deleted) plastic cover off. I've actually started to remove it a couple of times, but then got to wondering if I'd ever get it back on when I install it on our car. 'Twould have been nice if the Bentley manual had said to take the motor off instead of making the operation sound so simple! I would only replace the motor (now that I know it has to be removed to get the whole mess out), but I suspect there is a bad bushing or something on the transmission itself that has gone bad, precipitating the motor failure.

By the way: Can those bushings be lubricated with anything? I figure now would be the time to do it, before reinstallation.

[Jeffnhiscars]

I'll get into that this morning, I think. I'll have to push the mechanism back on place on the donor car so I can get that (expletive deleted) plastic cover off. I've actually started to remove it a couple of times, but then got to wondering if I'd ever get it back on when I install it on our car. 'Twould have been nice if the Bentley manual had said to take the motor off instead of making the operation sound so simple! I would only replace the motor (now that I know it has to be removed to get the whole mess out), but I suspect there is a bad bushing or something on the transmission itself that has gone bad, precipitating the motor failure.

By the way: Can those bushings be lubricated with anything? I figure now would be the time to do it, before reinstallation.

The motors come in a couple of different internal style and to my knowledge are not repairable and the plastic cover is light ABS so will withstand a fair amount of distortion (which it needs) without breaking. You can try a thin later of dielectric grease in the ball joints. Being silicon based it should not effect the rubber/hard plastic and once the linkage is out Id also apply some to the spindle shafts. Just be very careful pulling them out as there is a very tiny o ring just under the splines where the wiper arms attach and you do not want to damage it or lose it.

I also highly recommend you replace the damper rings which, without exception, are all old and brittle. There's a write up on these in my barn find build thread and they are cheap from the dealer. I also have a few of them that you can have for $5/pair shipped.

[Three Dee]

Damper rings? I confess I didn't know the wiper setup had them, nor do I know where they are. Unless I just call them something else...

[Jeffnhiscars]

It's #14

http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?...85&hg=61&fg=45

[Three Dee]

It's #14

http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?...85&hg=61&fg=45

Aha! I was just calling those grommets.

- - - Updated - - -

I FINALLY got that sucker out! I found removing the bush bearing and damper ring (Real OEM #16 and 17) helped a little. I am still inclined to believe that BMW's finest engineers sat up late one night devising ways to make removal a pain in the backside. Now I get to repeat the process on our driver (it's nice to have a donor car to experiment upon) and then install the danged thing.

Thanks for the help!