The final item to install within the bulkhead was the wiper rack, which really ought to be very straight forward. However the thickness of the heater pipe insulation I’d used caused problems again. The reduced clearance stopped the entire rack to be fed into the bulkhead as one unit.
After several attempts using different angles/orientations, I conceded defeat and decided the quickest method would be to build the rack in situ.
The obvious issue being that if anything is dropped it could be a real problem fishing it out, now the pipes are all in place.
The two end splined drives were detached from the main rack frame so they could be losely fitted separately. No matter what I tried, I then couldn’t get the central splined drive and main rack frame to fit onto the two ends.
Some head scratching later and my laughable error became clear. I was trying to fit it the wrong way round, with the splined drives facing the screen rather than away from it! Muppet!
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Once corrected it, unsurprisingly, fitted without any issues. The final fettling of the adjustable links and connection to the motor will be done once the screen has been put in place.
There’s little worth noting regarding the fitting of the windscreen washer and jets. Fortunately the chromed jets were the first thing I’d decided to install before the bulkhead pipes and wiper rack, which made it possible to fish out dropped washers and wing nuts. 
I’d lost count of the number of times I’d dropped either the washer, the nut or both. Finally common sense prevailed. 
All seemed sensible advice so I purchased some dense foam, pipe insulation. The other issue I’d already found was that the shoulder of the rivet gun was too wide to get the mussel onto the rivet head.
I ended up cursing the fact that I’d insulated the lower heater pipe. At least I probably should have used much thinner lagging. It made the fitting of the lower vacuum pipe so much harder and later the routing of the windscreen washer tubing.
I’m also glad I taped the surrounding area as the head of the rivet gun tends to jump off the rivet when the pin snaps. I’m sure I’d have had several chips without it. In fact the only touching up needed was to one of the flanges but this was more to do with the adhesion of the Hammerite to the zinc plating.
The photo shows the difference in the bend radius between the two pipes. The tighter bend in the MkIII version means the pipe is perpendicular where it passes through the flange.
What I’d failed to mention was the bent pipe I’d supplied as the ‘template’ wasn’t the original pipe and I’d not trial fitted it. Like most of the repro parts it looks ok on the surface. That is until you get round to fitting it! The bends in the repro part weren’t tight enough and the flanges had been brazed mid-bend. It would never have fitted and so using it as template to replicate the require bend wasn’t such a good idea! The replicated bend on the right shows the probelm.
The general consensus from people who have gone through a full rebuild is that one of the first tasks is to fit the various pipes and components within the bulkhead, before access becomes too restricted. So I set to work on the wiper rack. It was working fine but had started to show signs of rust so I decided to smarten it up. Yet again, in my enthusiasm to press on, I forgot to take some decent before photos. The only difficult part during the dismantling was the removal of the rear brackets from the three splined drive assemblies, which needed to be pressed off. The rest of the parts were simply secured by nuts or circlips.
The wiper arm splines on each of the three splined drives weren’t in the best of shape but were still serviceable. Which is just as well as the only replacement I could find was for a fully remanufacturer rack. Due to the shape of the rack, the central drive has a longer shaft than the outer two and so has a spacer fitted between the drive and the rear bracket. 
The centre area of the gearbox lid has been stretched at some point. Therefore its outer perimeter no longer made a continuous seal and so would allow water into the gearbox housing.
Next up was the yoke which contains the two permanent magnets. The magnets can be removed by lifting the retaining clips so the yoke could then be shot blasted before being painted in silver hammerite. I was quite pleased with the finished article even though the silver hammerite was not quite the correct colour.
The wiper motor in the S2 is a Lucas Type 15W motor, the output of which drives a connecting rod to the triple wiper rack. From what I can tell the 15W motor essentially works in the same manner as the DL3 wiper motors used in the earlier cars, except that the parking switch is now internal within the 15W. 
The two long yoke retaining bolts were removed which enabled the round bodied section and armature to be carefully withdrawn until the worm drive is free. Unchecked, the action of the worm drive would pull the armature shaft further into the motor gearbox. A threaded stop screw limits the permitted travel of the armature shaft and there’s also flat thrust washer between the armature and motor gearbox.
The armature can then be withdrawn from the yoke. Although a reasonable amount of force is required to overcome the magnetic attraction between the permanent magnets and the armature.
The end of the armature rotates in, what the manual describes as, a bearing housing in the cap of the yoke. However there isn’t a bearing as such. Only a small thrust plate and fibrous washer. I didn’t realise they were there at the time of dismantling so I was lucky not to lose them.
The cover can be pressed back into shape but it immediately pops back, in a similar manner to the lid of an opened jar. I think it’s referred as oil canning and is a result of the centre area of the lid having been stretched.
