While we are keeping all options open, I'd suggest you order the wheel houses and take a look. If you don't need them this time you will later and will there be any then? There are a number of issues with them. The splined wiper mount can loosen on the shaft. The shaft can become tight in the housing and the outer threads can be damaged by weather or poor workmanship. I do all I can to save old parts but some are not worth it. Steve (CTR)

I was thinking the same thing Mur

I would epoxy the wipers onto the splines before I dared to fit a newly manufactured wheel box.

Cleaned up and greased and working . The only issue now is that the teeth on both wheelboxes are very worn and arms are slipping a bit. Will order and hopefully installed next weekend. Thanks again for inputs.

I'd expect you have a round body two speed wiper motor. All the bits to rebuild them are easy to come by. I have made it a habit when doing a large job on a mini to find time to remove the motor and the rack with wheel houses. The pad the motor mounts on is a good place to start along with a new brush set. Do not forget to turn the armiture and under cut the segments. The park switch can be replaced as well. Once all the dried grease is removed and the wheel houses cleaned and lubed it should work much better. They are easy to work on and respond well to the effort. Steve (CTR)

Could be the brushes are worn out.

@ Malsal and Jimini....Thanks....Will, inspect, clean and lube as necessary.....fingers crossed

Applied Rainex, it didn't help wipers but it did help driving to work in drizzle this morning without wipers.

X2 on what Malsal said.  Motors are not the strongest, particularily  on a dry screen.  Same happened to me just a couple weeks ago.  Works fine in rain, sticks near top on dry windscreen.  Add a liile water and away they go.  I cleaned out the old crusty lube in the wiper motor and repacked with white lithium grease and it's a little better.

It could be the motor itself when there is a load on it. Does it work the same with water on the w/s ?

Also the grease in the track and gearboxes gets very hard and thick with age and slows things down. Remove the easiest one at the end of the cable/track and inspect it.

Rain-X?  

The wipers on my '76 are slow and slower and yes, the rain looks like it's back...for the next 7 months.

Anyone had a similar problem with wipers? My drivers ( '78 RHD) LH park wiper arm flew off about two weeks ago as I was descending a bridge on my way to work in the pouring rain.....great. Got to work ok and switched passenger wiper to drivers side for ride home.....no problems. When I got home I put a spare RH park wiper arm (gave it a wee tweek to fit) from my 67 Countryman on the passenger side....no problem worked great...for about a week. Now if I switch on wipers, they go to the up position and stay there. I took both arms off and posts turn as normal. I put on drivers side only and it worked as normal. I got new arms and blades today from MiniMania, installed them and same thing ..... they stay in up position. So my question is could this be the motor? Cable? Or are the posts too loose as I've noted some play in them. Any help or suggestions are appreciated.....I need to get this sorted asap as the rainy season has started in the Pacific NW and its my daily driver (22 miles each way), otherwise it's a great runner and sound as a pound.