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Lightningtweeds

Member Since: 16 May 2017
Location: Fintry
Posts: 461

2008 Defender 90 Puma 2.4 CSW Stornoway Grey

1960's design engineered into a modern day icon.

26th Jan 2018 5:06pm

okami

Member Since: 06 Apr 2017
Location: Hertfordshire
Posts: 90

1993 Defender 110 200 Tdi SW Montpellier Red

Definitely wheel box and/or cable wear. In many cases the wheel box wear is due to eventual bending and misalignment of the gear as it meshes with the cable. The brass collar that sandwiches the gear to the wheel box frame also gets loose and allows the gear to ride off the cable at times. Both are usually from banging on new wipers and ferrules.

Given the pain of replacing them, I'd recommend buying new LR parts. You WILL need to adjust (bend) the wheel boxes cable clamp to align and mesh the gears perfectly with the cable. You will also want to hammer on the ferrules onto the wiper while it is off the car (align it as couple of times first before fully seating it). This is to prevent the gear from pushing out of alignment and the brass collar from getting loose.

While you are at it:

New L/R wheel boxes
New cable (grease the heck out of it)
New wipers
New wiper motor gear (ensure it is the right one that matches your wheel box gear pitch and degree)
Properly adjust the wheel box clamps
Properly adjust the wiper motor gear backlash (use the included washers that come with the motor gear)
Grease inside motor unit
New park switch (keep the old one as a spare)

I had tons of issues with non LR wheel boxes and not properly aligning things. I've also seen the alignment undone by a heavy hand installing the ferrules/wipers. Do it once and do it right

-j

26th Jan 2018 6:01pm

zsd-puma

Member Since: 09 Aug 2016
Location: Kent
Posts: 2720

2010 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 USW Santorini Black

Quote:
That leaves the motor worm drive, drive gear and the cable connection at the motor end being common to both wipers.

I did mention that a few posts ago....

If you're pulling the motor out, just get two new wheel boxes and a rack too, because it's not much more work or expense to replace those at the same time.

27th Jan 2018 7:32pm

jst

Member Since: 14 Jan 2008
Location: Taunton
Posts: 8463

2011 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 USW Stornoway Grey

My 90, 88 vintage has excessive sweep all the time.

It appears the reviews owner replaced wheel boxes. They look new and lots of stuff was done prior to my my.purchase, like new bulkhead so it would stand to reason wiper boxes were new.

There is no slack between wiper arms or between both arms vs motor.

Do I recall there being a different motor gear setup and that fitting the wrong gearing gives wrong sweep, Cheers

James
110 2010 XS Utility
130 2011 M57 bespoke Camper
90 2010 Hardtop
90 M57 1988 Hardtop

8th Oct 2025 9:42pm

MarkBrown

Member Since: 03 Oct 2022
Location: Mid Wales
Posts: 595

1983 Defender 110 Other HT Auto Keswick Green

Post removed- incorrect. 1983 110 automatic OM606

Last edited by MarkBrown on 9th Oct 2025 11:04am. Edited 1 time in total

9th Oct 2025 8:35am

blackwolf

Member Since: 03 Nov 2009
Location: South West England
Posts: 18009

2007 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 DCPU Stornoway Grey

Tooth count on the motor gear won't affect the sweep of the wipers, just the speed. The only things that will affect the sweep are the diameter (tooth count) of the wheel-box gears and the offset of the crank on the motor gear.

I think that the wheel-box gear size did change at some point (it's mentioned in some thread or other on the subject) so using non-standard wheel-boxes might affect the sweep. Similarly using a non-standard motor gear (i.e., one with a different crank-offset than expected for the wheel-boxes) will alter the sweep.

Over the years for different applications there has been a great variety of crank offsets used in what is essentially the same motor.

9th Oct 2025 9:16am

MarkBrown

Member Since: 03 Oct 2022
Location: Mid Wales
Posts: 595

Post removed- incorrect 1983 110 automatic OM606

Last edited by MarkBrown on 9th Oct 2025 11:05am. Edited 1 time in total

9th Oct 2025 9:54am

Retroanaconda

Member Since: 04 Jan 2012
Location: Scotland
Posts: 2784

The numbers on the gears refer to the sweep angle, not numbers of teeth. As above this is adjusted by the position of the crank on the gear.

The pre-2002 and 2002-on setups differ, you just need to match the motor gear to the wheelboxes. The motor itself is the same.

9th Oct 2025 10:41am

jst

Member Since: 14 Jan 2008
Location: Taunton
Posts: 8463

Thanks you.

Well.they are def the older style spindles and hence I guess wheel boxes as have the grub screw fitment.

So guess need to look at crank. Could be old style wheel boxes and newer motor with different crank position? Cheers

James
110 2010 XS Utility
130 2011 M57 bespoke Camper
90 2010 Hardtop
90 M57 1988 Hardtop

9th Oct 2025 9:17pm

jst

Member Since: 14 Jan 2008
Location: Taunton
Posts: 8463

517646 - 115deg wiper motor crank and gear
DLW000020 - 140 deg version Cheers

James
110 2010 XS Utility
130 2011 M57 bespoke Camper
90 2010 Hardtop
90 M57 1988 Hardtop

10th Oct 2025 8:54am

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