[E-Type] S3 windshield wiper blades

My '72 2+2 (1S73605, 8/72) has the original wiper blades as shown in the
parts manual, and they are 14" long. Steve Weinstein’s car, which was made
a couple of months later, still has one original wiper and it measures 15".
My search for 14" wipers has shown that they are virtually unknown to auto
parts suppliers, and I ended up cutting down a longer one. So my question
for all Series 3 owners, just for the sake of discussion: what size wipers
does your car take?

Mike Eck
New Jersey, USA
'51 XK120 OTS
'62 3.8 MK2 MOD
'72 SIII E-Type 2+2

Hi Mike,
I have 15" blades 3/73 2+2 1S74684
Lynn G.
…So my question
for all Series 3 owners, just for the sake of discussion: what size wipers
does your car take?

Mike Eck

In a message dated 7/3/2002 8:58:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
mikeeck@optonline.net writes:

<< My '72 2+2 (1S73605, 8/72) has the original wiper blades as shown in the
parts manual, and they are 14" long. Steve Weinstein’s car, which was made
a couple of months later, still has one original wiper and it measures 15".

Hi Mike,

Mine measure a shade under 15"!

Attilio
74 OTS
74 MGB

Hi Mike,

My '73 2+2 has 15" long wiper blades as well.

Regards,

Mike Meyer
'73 2+2> Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2002 20:08:14 -0600

From: “Lynn Gardner” lgardner28@cableone.net
Subject: Re: [E-Type] S3 windshield wiper blades

Hi Mike,
I have 15" blades 3/73 2+2 1S74684
Lynn G.
…So my question
for all Series 3 owners, just for the sake of discussion: what size wipers
does your car take?

Mike Eck

Hello - I have 15" blades and the driver’s side looks very strange to me as it literally protruces over the windshield edge.

Does anyone else have this issue?

Where is the best place to find replacement blades? Can just the rubber be replaced to preserve the authenticity?

Please help.

Hi, my 1971 S3 FHC has 15" replacement blades from XKS. I’ve noticed the driver wiper takes a set around the windshield curve when parked and doesn’t straighten out when wiping the flat part of the glass. Anybody else have this issue?

Dear Fenner,

The 15" blades on the s3 are composed of three parts:- 1/ the main body of the arm, which is handed, depending on whether you have a left or right hand drive car, 2/ the rubber blade, which is very flexible and will follow whatever contour it is given, and 3/ a flexible metal insert which runs along the length of the blade and allows a limited amount of curvature to be evenly spread along the blade length.

It is this third part which needs to be fettled slightly, to make sure there is no kink in the end which sits over the curvature at the lower end of the screen when the wiper is parked. As you have observed, if this part takes on a set, then it cannot unflex itself when the wiper is in use and is in the field of vision. To be able to wipe over the straight part of the screen and sit tight against the windshield when parked, this third part has to have less rigidity about 80-90% along its length. Any other “solution” means the blade either sits proud of the screen when parked or leaves a portion of the screen unwiped. You can swap left and right parts or turn them around to help them take on the right set again if you so wish.

The rubber part of the blade is common to many other Trico blades of the time so replacements should be easily available on ebay for ~£10 and one simply has to swap over the rubber parts only.

kind regards
Marek

Hello:

I have a 72 2+2 and my drivers side (LHD) blade does certainly protrude over the windshield. In fact it touches the paint over the chrome finisher. I have always found this odd.

Marek - are you stating that by swapping the right and left blades it will reset its ability to contour the windshield?

Thank you

James