Tuesday, February 21, 2017

SWF WIPER MOTORS--SAME BUT DIFFERENT

This mess of parts is what goes together to make an SWF windshield wiper motor, believe it or not. There are a number of slightly different versions of this motor. The differences are mostly in the winding of the armature [left], the brush plate assembly [bottom left] and the connection/self park assembly [bottom, right].  The armature can be wired for either six or twelve volts. It can also have five [for one speed] or ten [for two speed] commutator segments. The brush plate will have two brush arms for one speed operations [shown] or have a third arm for two speeds. The connector plate may have three connector spades [shown] or four.  The main frames may differ slightly to allow for different mounting in different cars.  Finally the gears themselves differ in diameters, between one and two speed applications.  Finally, the tiny steel gear in the center of the dark colored phenolic gear [lower right] has nine teeth for a one speed motor and eight teeth for a two speed motor.  See--I have to know all this shit when I take one of these things apart for reconditioning.   Good times.
 There are two major problems I find when I disassemble one of these motors. 
1--The 50 year old grease--laid in in great gobs at some point--is hard as a rock.
2--The main permanent magnet, that surrounds the armature, distorts with age and heat, and seizes the armature so it cannot turn.  I dig out all the old, nasty, neolithic grease, correct the magnet's shape, clean and adjust the self park switch assembly
adjust the shaft and armature end plays, and put in modern non-hardening, temperature stable grease, then reassemble and test the sucker.  This photo shows the reconditioned motor on the test bed.
Here are six reconditioned SWF one speed motors. The four on the left are six volt motors, the two on the right are twelve volt.  All ready to go.  I also have a number of reconditioned SWF two speed twelve volt motors. And you know what?  They look just like six shown here.   Good luck trying to figure out what yours is--HA!