Windshield Wipers

[bluestreak]

My windshield wipers are not working well. They turn off/on normally, but when they stop (on intermittent setting) they stop a few inches from where they normally rest on the lower section of the windshield. When they move again, their motion is pretty jerky and the drivers side wiper sometimes even goes past the piller/edge of the windshield and slaps back.

Has anyone had this or similar problems before? Are there limit switches that could be going out causing this herky-jerky motion of the wipers? I am not familiar with the wiper system at all, so I have nowhere to start troubleshooting - any info/advise would be appreciated.

[sperry]

There are no limit switches. If the wiper is hitting the pillar, it's because the arms have come loose from the screw, or they were removed and put back on at the wrong angle. If it's jerky, I bet the screws are just loose and the arms are slipping on the splines.

[Dean]

What Scott said.

If the arms do not move on the spline, check the motor and pivot mounts as well as the rest of the linkage.

I think Cody had to replace one of the bushings on his bugeye wagon so you might ping him.

[cody]

Originally Posted by Dean

What Scott said.

If the arms do not move on the spline, check the motor and pivot mounts as well as the rest of the linkage.

I think Cody had to replace one of the bushings on his bugeye wagon so you might ping him.

Ya, it's most likely the same issue I had. The bushings in the wiper linkage below the windshield are worn. There's a thread on Nasioc where people are using various bushings made for other cars to replace them, but it requires time, effort, and probably won't be a long term solution. I think I paid about $80 for a new complete linkage system replacement from an online Suby parts dealer like subaruparts.com. Fixed it perfectly. Here's my post in the Nabisco thread I referenced above:

I went the OEM linkage ($80) route since I really need my wipers to work in the winter. Pretty straight forward, though I had to take it all apart a second time because the motor shaft turned a little while removing the nut that holds the linkage to it so I had that problem where the wipers were going down a little before going up and then they didn't go up high enough.

The second time, I was careful not to let the motor shaft turn at all before marking the threaded end with a sharpie. That way, when the shaft inevitably spun while removing the nut at the end of it, I could turn it back to where it started, line everything up, and retighten. There are 3 dashes on the sheet metal part of the linkage assembly that the arrow on the linkage arm that attaches to the motor shaft is supposed to point at (the middle dash).

Other than loosing that stupid wiper linkage nut that my strut tower bar was in the way of and having to drive to the store to buy a new one, piece of cake.

Oh, one last issue. I got the driver side wiper arm installed perfect, but the passenger side was either too low or too high. The notched spindle the arm attaches too wouldn't allow it to go in between two settings where it would have been just right, so after like 6 tries, I decided the lower setting was the better of two evils. The wiper comes into contact with the cowl at the bottom of the windshield now, when the wipers are on the high setting, but I don't think it will be too big of an issue, hopefully. The higher setting had the PS wiper up way too high. It looked stupid and was actually in my line of sight. Oh well, I'm happy.

The bushing that was worn out on mine was, not surprisingly, the one closest to the motor. By looking at the system, it's definitely the one that would take the most abuse...

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...9&postcount=97

[bluestreak]

Thanks guys - I checked out the mechanism and all of the bushings are toast. Ordered the OEM linkage yesterday.

[cody]

Right on.