Lucas DR3A Wiper Motors When it comes to the DR3A range of wiper motors, people seem to have problems wiring the two speed versions for proper use. In this document, we start by exploring the operation of the single speed versions and then extend this to cover the two speed version. Compared with modem wiper systems, these Lucas motors run relatively slowly, which affects their performance when used with after-market intermittent wipe devices, but methods for improving this are explored later in the text. Both motor versions, single and two-speed have two windings. = Field = Armature The field winding is a large flat coil that is found in the outer casing and is used to magnetise the two semicircular pole pieces The Armature winding is located on the rotor and consists of multiple sections connected to a copper commutator. Carbon brushes connect via the commutator to each end of a section of armature winding as the rotor rotates to provide an electrical path through the armature coil. In a winder motor from an E-type Jaguar, the various ends of the field and armature windings are brought out through the case to provide six separate connection points, (More on this variant later), but on the TR4A single speed motor, there are various internal connections resulting in only two external connections. In the diagram below the wiring for the TR4A version is shown with connections 1 and 2 clearly labeled. These two external connections are presented as spade connectors and the numbers 1 and 2 are visible on the motor casing. A third connection for the park switch, via the metal case of the motor has an E marking on the case. A separate connection is made from this connection to the vehicle body, The self-park mechanism consists of a rotating spring metal contact rubbing against a fixed brass track. The track is approximately % of a circle and the missing section is what causes the wipers to park. The wiper motor will run perfectly well without connecting the motor casing to the vehicle body, but without this connection, the motor will stop when the wiper switch is turned off, and will not park the wipers.Lucas DR3A Wiper Motors 12 VOLTS ARMATURE FIELD PARKER CAR-BODY Check-out the following features on the diagram: 1. 2. The 12V supply from the battery is at the top The 12 volt supply is connected to spade terminal number 2 and feeds the Armature-winding, through one carbon-brush and it also feeds the inner-end of the Field-winding. The outer-end of the Field-winding is connected to the other carbon-brush. A connection from here comes out on spade-terminal number 1. The wiper-switch is connected to spade-terminal number 1 and completes a contact to the car-body in order to start the motor. The red self park wire that is so obvious on the round “cap”, is connected to the car- body by the rotating contact, When the motor-case is “earthed by a wire on the E terminal and the wipers are NOT in the “parking-position”, the motor will continue to run with the wiper switch in the off position until the spring contact runs off the end of the brass track at which time the motor stops. Careful positioning of the track permits the wipers to be parked in a suitable location.Lucas DR3A Wiper Motors In the two-speed variant of the DR3 motor, there is no space to fit three spade connectors for external connections, so three wires are brought out through a gap in the casing and the spade connectors are dispensed with completely. When upgrading to a two-speed motor from a single speed, confusion arises for those people not familiar with the wiring system for these wiper motors. The problem is exacerbated with the move from spades to bullet connectors. There are three wires from the two-speed motor and three wires from the loom and without a diagram to signify otherwise, the logical conclusion is each motor wire will connect to a loom wire, but this is not the case. A two-speed motor needs four wires to operate correctly. = 12 Volt Supply - Bullet = Slow ground connection - Bullet = Fast ground connection - Bullet = Self park ground connection — Spade or ring connection to motor case. Because the wiring of these motors is not straightforward, many people wire them incorrectly and create problems that can lead to motor failure. It is essential to know what, the purpose of each connection is to avoid these problems. Since all the switching for this wiper motor is in the ground connections, the supply to the motor is live when the ignition is on, and therefore a fused supply is recommended. On a TR4A this will be one of the main fuses, the one between the ‘green’ instrumentation circuit and the ‘white’ ignition circuit. If this fuse blows, the car will run, but the turn indicators, brake lights and gauges won't work. In the preceding descriptions, no mention was made of positive or negative, since these terms are only relevant for polarised items. In cars with positive ground, the supply is negative 12 volts, whereas in a car with negative ground, the supply is postive 12 volts. As far as the wiper motor is concerned, it does not matter whether it is positive or negative ground, the motor will work the same way, (rotate the same direction), when wired correctly, When designing the DR3A motor, Lucas decided to specify the supply connector as 2 rather than 1 and this has led to a good deal of confusion. It encourages people to guess. connector 1 for the supply. If connection 1 is connected to the supply when the self-park contact is touching the brass track (not parked), the whole battery supply is connected directly to ground and the fuse will blow, or where there is no fuse, the self-park mechanism (or the loom) will burn out. In the diagram of a two-speed DR3A below, you can see that a resistor (zigzag markings) has been added into the field winding circuit, and multiple wires are brought out through the casing, No changes are made to the armature mechanism. All changes are made in the field winding parts of the motor, and a suitable two-speed switch will be neededSLOW Lucas DR3A Wiper Motors 12 VOLTS ARMATURE RED/GRN PARKER BRN/GRN CAR-BODY Check-out the following features on the diagram: 1 The 12V supply, from the battery uses a GREEN wire and feeds the Armature- winding through one carbon-brush and it also feeds the inner-end of the Field- winding On a two speed-motor the Field coil has the same winding as a single-speed motor AND an “over-wind” of ten tums of resistance wire (Zigzag bit) The outer-end of the resistance wire is connected to the other carbon-brush and comes out of the Motor-case on a BROWN/GREEN wire, This the FAST wire. The joint between the resistance-wire and the ordinary copper wire comes out of the Motor-case using a RED/GREEN wire. This is the SLOW wire. The self-park is wired and works as for the single-speed motor As is often the case with these motors, the way the switches work isn't obvious and needs the more detailed explanation below.Lucas DR3A Wiper Motors Having covered the basics for these wiper motors lets explain what is going on inside them and the precautions this implies we should take. Using a multimeter set to Ohms, various resistance measurements can be made on the motor = Armature should be approximately 1 Ohm (measured across the carbon brushes). = Field winding should be approximately 8.5 Ohms, measured with armature removed. Ina single speed motor, both field and armature are connected in parallel across 12 Volts and using Ohms law this predicts a current of approximately 1.4Amps in the field coil and 12 Amps in the Armature coil. These values are accurate when the motor is not rotating, but once it is operational, Ohm's law does not apply and the motor will draw about 2 Amps When initially starting or if the wipers get jammed, the motor armature will draw 13.4 Amps and will BURN OUT if this is not sorted out within seconds. Motors found in more “upmarket saloons" often have a thermal cut-out switch to protect the motor. Triumph motors usually don't. The target market was Califomia and drivers were not expected to use the wipers if they were frozen up! As the motor runs up, the interaction of the field and the rotation generates a voltage opposing the supply and this causes the armature current to fall back to its steady-running value, which is about 2A. This interaction allows us to vary the running speed. By reducing the strength of the magnetic-field, created by the field-winding, the armature needs to turn faster to generate the same opposing voltage. This means that to run faster, we need a SMALLER current in the field-winding. This is counter-intuitive and anyone poking around inside the motor and finding the resistance-wire, that Lucas fitted to reduce the field- current, will probably assume that they need to wire the resistance in circuit when they want SLOW speed, but that is not the case. Ten tums of Nickel-iron wire with a resistance of about 10 Ohms were used in the two- speed motors. This halves the field current and doubles the running speed. For convenience, this resistance wire was wound over the Field-winding, but there are not enough turns to have any magnetic effect when compared with the main field winding, which has hundreds of turns, Only its resistance is important, Lucas could have used a power-lype resistor, but this would have cost more. By adding power-resistors, it is possible to obtain a faster running from single-speed motors. These resistors are better at handling the heat generated and don't burn-out as. easily as the bit of wire that Lucas used. (More about this later). ‘So now we know we need: = Asupply of 12V that comes on when the “ignition” is on = Aconnection from the motor-case to the car body to operate the the self-park = A three-position switch, making connections to the car-bodyLucas DR3A Wiper Motors 1. The switch must ensure that the field current is reduced, by the resistance-wire, in the FAST postion but not in the SLOW position. The choice of switch is important. Not just any three-position switch will do! To see why you must study the diagram above. FAST RUN This is easy to understand. The Slow-switch is open and the Fast-switch works in the same way that the switch on a single-speed motor does. The difference is that the resistance-wire is reducing the current in the Field-winding to approximately half that in a single-speed motor and this causes the speed to increase. Notice that the self-park mechnism is not affected, so the motor will park at high-speed! SLOW RUN This is not so easy to understand If we open the Fast-switch and close the Slow-switch, which would be an obvious thing to do, we would create a problem The current in the Field-winding would increase to the value used on the single-speed motors if we did this, but we would be feeding the Armature-winding through the resistance wire. Two things will now go wrong. = The motor won't get the 12A current needed to start. = Worse still, the resistance-wire will, receive almost 12V. This is because the Armature-winding only has a resistance of 1 Ohm and the motor won't run up. In this scenario, the resistance wire will be overloaded and will BURN OUT. In Fast-run mode, the resistance-wire shared the 12V with the Field-winding, it had approximately 6V drop across it at 2 Amps (12 Watts of power dissipation), but with 12V at 12 Amps, itis trying to dissipate 144 Watts of power. it will get twice twelve times as hot as at 6V. You can see what will happen. To prevent this thermal nightmare, the Fast-switch MUST also be closed during the Slow- run mode. Because both switches are closed, there will be NO CURRENT in the resistance wire and the two-speed motor will run exactly like single-speed motor.Lucas DR3A Wiper Motors You MUST use a three-position switch that makes the correct connections AND you will probably need to identify which contacts you need to connect to where. Unfortunately, the usual switch that Triumph used for this job actually has SIX contacts. Some of these are connected to each other all the time, The others connect to each other in different and confusing ways, as the switch is pulled, You will probably need a suitable multimeter to find which contacts work as required When | checked out one of my spare 3-way Triumph switches, and I've no idea if they are all the same as this, the contacts are numbered 1 to 8, except that contacts 3 and 6 were not fitted. It works like this: position from contact to contact and contact So if you connected 7 to the (BLACK on a TRAA) 4 to the (BROWN/GREEN on a TR4A) 8 to the (RED/GREEN on 2 TR4A) then you would correctly get both speeds on a fully operation two-speed motor. Contacts 1 and 7 are always joined so you could connect to 1 instead of 7 if that suits youLucas DR3A Wiper Motors | have measured some details of the behaviour of these motors, as a means of checking their correct operation. The following data may be useful to others doing the same 55 50 45 40 35 30 oe 25 20 105 11 11.5 12 125 13 135 14 145 15 155 Speed versus Voltage (Red - High speed, Blue - Low Speed)