Lancia Beta Wipers

When I drove my Zagato from Montreal to the south east US, I had checked pretty much everything there was to check. But as Murphy's law would have it, I hadn't tested much the wipers. And of course, it rained... It rained so hard in New Jersey that people were stopping on the side of the road. I tought, no problem!, as I turned the wipers on.

They moved one cycle and that was it. Panic. It's raining hard, and no wipers, in the middle of the New Jersey turnpike. Yikes. I searched for an overpass and tried fixing them on the spot, but having a limited knowledge of the system at that time, I only tried a few tricks which included testing the column switch and applying 12v directly from the battery to the wiper motor. It didn't move at all. Eventually the weather calmed down and I was able to make it safely.

On the road, I had tried to remove the motor from the mount, but removing the two visible nuts on each side of it was not enough. Looking at it calmly under better conditions (and with a hint by email from someone who told me to remove the whole thing, linkage included) I realised that you cant remove the motor from the mount, it has to come out all at once. The wiper unit as a whole includes the motor, it's mount, a linkage for the spindles, the spindles and an arm attached to the crank of the motor, as shown.

To remove the assembly, you have to remove the wiper arms (they are held there with nuts and the nuts are at the end of the spindles, hidden under a little cover), then remove the rubber nut cover under the wipers which will reveal a 7/8" nut (at least on my 82 zagato). You will need a long socket to remove it as the spindle in the middle comes out at least half an inch higher than the nut. Then, remove the plastic spacers and the linkage is now free.

Remove the two bolts on the motor bracket and remove both sprayers (the black plastic thingys that squirt wiper fluid) by removing the phillips screw hidden behind the hood rubber seal. Now you are ready to take the whole thing out. If you cant seem to get it out like that, remove the circlip holding the arm of the linkage to the motor crank and remove the arm from the crank. That buys you almost one centimeter of play...

Once the whole assembly is out, you can now remove the motor from the assembly. First, remove the plastic cover (two small bolts). Then, remove the three bolts that hold the motor and assembly together. Now, open the black cover with the wires. Under it you'll find a plastic gear. Check to see if it's worn down or something is blocking it (the park switch or the intermitant switch could have broke and block it). When you'll reassemble it, clean the whole thing and put new grease in.

Next step is to remove the black metal cylinder. You may have to remove two additional bolts to do that. Once everything is free, remove the rotor from the cylinder. Clean the inside of the cylinder, removing magnet chips etc. Clean the rotor and check for about 0.7 ohm for each winding (the resistance between two contacts on the shaft of the rotor, measured with a digital multimeter). Two windings (skipping one contact) will yield 1.4 ohm, 3 would be 2.1 etc. Check all of them.

Next, check the brushes. Are they very short? Do they conduct electricity? Check for continuity, or resistance if you dont have that on your multimeter, between the tip of the brush (an electrode really, probably carbon based) and the corresponding wire soldered to the black plastic cover. Should be a red, green and i think yellow wire. All ok? Then you are ready to reassemble the whole thing. You'll probably need help from someone to hold the brushes pushed in, while you put the rotor in place. Clean the ball bearing at the end of the shaft and regrease it. Now the most dificult part is to put back the metal cylinder without having the rotor pulled out of it's position (the brushes cant compete at holding the rotor against the magnet pull, so you will need to hold the rotor).

Finally, put all the bolts back and test the motor. Works? Perfect. Now put the assembly back in the car. If you cant get it to work, try the alternator and electric motor shops around to see if they can fix it. Else, there are used motors out there. Check the usual suspects (Bruce's had one last I checked). New motors are also available from certain sources too.

David Murrell contributed this information on this problem:

From: "Dave Murrell" 
Subject: Lancia Wiper Motors

The Betas are notorious for the cowl drains getting plugged and the wiper
motor spending some time under water.  That's what got the one on my Zagato!
Nevertheless, I have managed to find a used one and replaced my old one,
after getting the drains unplugged.

In the process I found a few motors, although they are rather hard to find.
Lenny at AutoItalia (look in Hemmings) had a couple and wanted $25.00 each
for them.  I think you'd be better off gettting one of these as a "core" and
having an electrical shop replace the brushes etc. than any other method.
My two cents....

Dave

Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 07:01:01 -0400
From: James Seabolt 
Subject: Lancia wiper motors


Can't tell you how to remove the motor but I can tell you that you can
PROBABLY remove the guts from a 76 X 1/9 wiper motor (cheapest) and install
the guts in the Lancia motor.

I've take motors apart from various models and the internals are the same.
Just the wiring is arranged differently.

That is saying that the Lancia wiper motor has a triangular bolt pattern and
looks like a Fiat wiper motor.

You have to solder the wires from the "head" going to the brushes but I
think it is an easy swap. I've never done this but I can't see any reason
why it couldn't be done.

The head is the piece that had all the wires soldered to it. You just re-use
it but you use the black casing with the fields, the stator, commuator and
burshes from the donor motor.

I've found that about all the wiper motors will bolt up between models but
because the wiring is arranged differently, it won't work.

One of these days I am going to attempt this just to see if it can be done.

I can tell you this:

The wipers were seized on my 81 Spider when I got it. I took the motor apart
and found the park switch had broke. Also the spindles on the linkage were
seized from where it sat out in the weather so long. I took everything apart
and sprayed penetrating oil on everything and loosened them up.

I took the broken piece out of the motor, cleaned the grease out, repacked
it with fresh grease and it works great now.

Except you have to cut the wipers off when they get to the bottom of the
windshield and the intermittant delay is useless. But the wipers work great!!







James Seabolt -----> mailto:jseabolt@preferred.com
Webpage: http://pages.preferred.com/~jseabolt
ICQ # : 7344463

United States

1980 FIAT 2000 Spider (injected)
1981 FIAT 2000 Spider (currently under construction)
1981 FIAT X 1/9 (Injected)
1994 JEEP Wrangler (2.5l )
1976 Chevrolet Pickup (454 Big Block)