Fixing Sloppy Defender Wipers - Adapter spindle slack/play 

My Landy is a military 1987 NINETY. It has always had decidedly sloppy wipers. That said, one Christmas several years ago now, I had to drive from Aldershot to the Wirral peninsula in a terrific snowstorm. Snow would gradually build up, reducing my wipers speed from the full windscreen to about 14 inches. Then, the Landy would say 'enough', and with a tremendous effort it'd clear the 8 inches depth of snow that'd built up, and we'd be back to a full wiper sweep until the cycle repeated itself. My important point is how incredibly strong is that wiper mechanism. Repeatedly clearing a buildup of 8 inches is quite phenomenal! I was passing a huge number of cars broken down on the hard shoulder with broken wiper mechanisms. Only the Land Rover was keeping going and able to cope with that depth of snow buildup. I do wonder what part the flexibility -- what we're calling the "sloppy" wipers -- played in enabling those wipers to keep on working when almost all of the other vehicles' wipers were failing and stranding the vehicles? So, maybe a little caution when thinking about "fixing" those "sloppy" wipers, as a certain degree of sloppiness may be part of the Landy's strength.

Very concise information 👍🏻

Done that. Cant wait to upgrade also. To put new cogs you can just disasemble the cog and you dont need to dismantle the whole dashboard. Cheers. 🍻

Great video. I had watched it before, but only now Do I actually need to do something like this.. Would it be just as easy to purchase all of the parts from a 2002 onwards and replace the gearboxes with those ?would I be able to use the same motor ? LHD 1988 LR90

Used a Dremal on mine, cut the arm off and the spindle adapter on both sides, spindle was in good condition, no need to disassemble the dash.

Hi mate, great video. I need to get round to doing this. Just out of curiosity, what speed were you doing on the motorway? Looks so much faster and smoother than mine.

I thought the arm could go in any position on the adapter? I’ll have to double check mine.

Another classic example of a Land Rover making a mechanic of its owner, or at least a half decent "bodger " Just give the passenger a squeedgey on a long stick and be done with it.