Wipers wont move!
03-27-03, 09:10 PM
#2
Old [Sch|F]ool
Common. At least, both of my 1st-gen suffered this.
Pull the wiper arms off, remove the big nuts holding the studs to the cowl, remove the cowl panel, unbolt and remove the wiper assembly.
Usually only one of the studs that the wiper arm attaches to is siezed. You'll want to do this to both while you have it all out in front of you.
Now. You get to spend a lot of quality time unsiezing the wiper studs. Remove them from the assembly (should be obvious) and clamp the thread part in a vise with bood blocks to protect them. You want to keep them from moving but you do NOT want to damage the threads or crush the threaded sleeve. (Again, this will be obvious when you have the parts in front of you) Now grab the lever part of the stud with vise-grips or something else with plenty of leverage, hose it all down with your favorite penetrating oil (PB Blaster is GOD) and work it loose.
Ok, so you've worked it loose so it kinda moves a bit. Unclamp the stud/sleeve assembly, remove the C-clip that holds the stud in, clamp it all back up and work the stud out.
An hour or so of swearing later, the stud is out. Clean the sleeve out thoroughly with a drill bit, or preferably a stiff wire pipecleaner like tool in a drill. Wire brush the snot out of the stud. Fit it back in to make sure it goes in easily and spins easily. Now take it back apart, coat everything with black brake caliper grease, or if that's not available, silver anti-sieze.
Do the same to the other stud, as preventative maintenance, and put it all back together. Hopefully you will have remembered the corrent order
I like to lay the parts out "in order" to make reassembly easier.
Pull the wiper arms off, remove the big nuts holding the studs to the cowl, remove the cowl panel, unbolt and remove the wiper assembly.
Usually only one of the studs that the wiper arm attaches to is siezed. You'll want to do this to both while you have it all out in front of you.
Now. You get to spend a lot of quality time unsiezing the wiper studs. Remove them from the assembly (should be obvious) and clamp the thread part in a vise with bood blocks to protect them. You want to keep them from moving but you do NOT want to damage the threads or crush the threaded sleeve. (Again, this will be obvious when you have the parts in front of you) Now grab the lever part of the stud with vise-grips or something else with plenty of leverage, hose it all down with your favorite penetrating oil (PB Blaster is GOD) and work it loose.
Ok, so you've worked it loose so it kinda moves a bit. Unclamp the stud/sleeve assembly, remove the C-clip that holds the stud in, clamp it all back up and work the stud out.
An hour or so of swearing later, the stud is out. Clean the sleeve out thoroughly with a drill bit, or preferably a stiff wire pipecleaner like tool in a drill. Wire brush the snot out of the stud. Fit it back in to make sure it goes in easily and spins easily. Now take it back apart, coat everything with black brake caliper grease, or if that's not available, silver anti-sieze.
Do the same to the other stud, as preventative maintenance, and put it all back together. Hopefully you will have remembered the corrent order
I like to lay the parts out "in order" to make reassembly easier.
03-27-03, 09:11 PM
#3
manually put them through a stroke so they are back down so you don't burn up the motor. The reason they stopped, is the fact that the shaft the arm mounts to locked up in the brass sleeve it rides in. Take the rack out of the car (4 bolts) and take the shafts out of hte sleeves (held in with a little C clip type thing, real bitch to get off without the right tool) and clean them up with sand paper, clean the sleeves out too, grease up like crazy and reassemble, good to go.
03-27-03, 10:20 PM
#7
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Thanks you guys for the very detailed responses!! Its greatly appreciated, i will take on this task tomorrow and see if i can get this problem resolved!! Thanks again!!
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03-27-03, 11:08 PM
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The 2 times that my wipers have stopped working I've pulled off the blades and the cowl only to find that the lever arm had become disconnected from the linkage. Just had to pop her back in and she's good to go. Man I hope I don't have to do what peejay just described, sounds like a load to do. On second thought maybe I would, I love to play with the car, just don't have the time right now.
03-28-03, 04:42 PM
#9
Old [Sch|F]ool
Originally posted by 82transam
hehe damn you
Hey peejay, how did you get the C clips off on yours? When I did It i had to use two small flat tipped screwdrivers, and that was a major pain, I assume there is some special tool for it, but I don't have one.
hehe damn you
Hey peejay, how did you get the C clips off on yours? When I did It i had to use two small flat tipped screwdrivers, and that was a major pain, I assume there is some special tool for it, but I don't have one.
First and foremost, go to your verbal toolbox and get a big stack of expletives. You will be using a lot of them.
Then go to your other toolbox and get picks and small screwdrivers. My general idea is to pry the two ends apart and simultanously push upwards. What generally happens is you try to push one end up out of the groove and spiral the whole clip out of the groove. And you always lose contact with the clip and it pops back in the groove. This is where you use some of those expletives and try again.
03-28-03, 05:50 PM
#11
Old [Sch|F]ool
Well let me put it this way...
It is MUCH MUCH NICER to clean and lube the studs while they are still working freely, than if you wait for them to seize.
I would even go so far as to recommend re-lubing them every fall. Black caliper grease (comes in a little can with a brushon the lid) is excellent because it's designed to stay put for long periods of time of non-motion. It doesn't wash off easily and it prevents corrosion. You'll be amazed how much faster the wipers work afterwards. I used to always complain about how slow the wipers in my first car were, have to use high for anything but a super mild rain.... changed my mind after i lubed the studs.
Actually, what happened was, since it was the passenger side wiper that siezed, I just disconnected the linkage to that wiper and lazily kept on truckin'. Passenger is better off not seeing through the windshield anyway.
It is MUCH MUCH NICER to clean and lube the studs while they are still working freely, than if you wait for them to seize.
I would even go so far as to recommend re-lubing them every fall. Black caliper grease (comes in a little can with a brushon the lid) is excellent because it's designed to stay put for long periods of time of non-motion. It doesn't wash off easily and it prevents corrosion. You'll be amazed how much faster the wipers work afterwards. I used to always complain about how slow the wipers in my first car were, have to use high for anything but a super mild rain.... changed my mind after i lubed the studs.
Actually, what happened was, since it was the passenger side wiper that siezed, I just disconnected the linkage to that wiper and lazily kept on truckin'. Passenger is better off not seeing through the windshield anyway.
03-28-03, 08:18 PM
#14
Yea peejay, doing it as preventative maintenance is a good idea, I was shocked how fast they went after I did mine. I used anti sieze ****, the same stuff i use on my lugs and spark plugs. I only did it a few weeks ago, I'll be interested to see how long it takes for them to start slowing down again.
03-28-03, 08:40 PM
#15
Old [Sch|F]ool
I went over a year with no difference. (using black caliper grease)
The one that siezed on this FB was a serious pain... I couldn't remove it all the way. I figured, well i can't remove it all the way but it moves really freely when it's pushed down in position, so I worked a bunch of silver anti-seize in there (no black goop onhand) and threw it all back together. Still workin'.
The one that siezed on this FB was a serious pain... I couldn't remove it all the way. I figured, well i can't remove it all the way but it moves really freely when it's pushed down in position, so I worked a bunch of silver anti-seize in there (no black goop onhand) and threw it all back together. Still workin'.
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