Can you tighten the windscreen wipers?

[thfcian]

Hi all,

I have a 63 split that I am just getting used t and the lack of published material led me to asking on here.

My windscreen wipers are very loose, there is no tension between the blade and the windscreen so they don't remove water.

Also the passenger side just moves very slightly and ends up off to the far right wiping the frame rather than the window.

So can I tighten them to make sure they have a proper "wipezone" and to make sure they actually move water from the glass?

Thanks for any help,

Ian

[BarryL]

First make sure you have good blades. I'm assuming you have the little earlier arms but the larger later ones are kinda the same. Remove the whole arm using the set screw. Open it up and remove the tension spring and wafer thingy. Clean the whole thing including working the pivot of the arm. Oil the pivot, reinstall the spring and little wafer. Trickle some oil down the wiper shafts where they spin but remove the dust/water covers ( if you have them ) then reinstall the covers. Turn on the motor and watch the stubs turn and try to predict where to tighten the arms. Reinstall the arms in the closed position ( I do it that way ) pretty tight. Check how far they travel and adjust accordingly. Final tighten not over tighten. I always push in on the arms towards the glass as a final-vinyl.

[thfcian]

thank you very much for that, I will order new blades tomorrow and then get the job done.

It is good to know it can be done!

[Ian]

Split window wipers are basically a bad joke.

Probably one of the reasons VW started making Baywindows...
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All your Buses are belong to us.
Love and good roads!
IN LOVING MEMORY OF ROB CRESS 1968-2012

[Stuart Maingot]

I can agree that the splittie wipers are just as bad as the early beetles and the persistent problem of the locking set screw wearing out the stud just about drove me crazy. My safari's would not open unless i unbolted the wipers or bought one of those expensive offset pivots.
I solved the problem by using bay splines welded to the shafts and now my wipers work well, don't slip and come off easy with one 10 mm nut for my safari's to pop open as required. A good quality wiper blade makes all the difference also. Hell, it rains for the last 6 months of the year down here.

[floyd1969]

Go through the whole wiper system it doesn't take long , worn ball joints , worn shafts and bent rods all contribute to bad wipers , if all the parts are good and set up right the wipers do their job .

[cru62]

One of the things I did on my last bus was to get the wiper arms in the correct location. Then I marked the location of the holddown screw on the shaft. Then I removed the arms and filed a small flat spot on the shaft so there was a bigger spot for the screw to seat on.

If you need more preload on the blades you can bend the arm a little to tension the arm and the blade.
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[krusher]

you can bend the arms so they press harder on the screen if you still have working springs.
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[Clara]

[BulliBill]

Back in the late 1980's I went to a dealership and tried to order new original VW wiper arms and bases for use on my '67 Westy. The part numbers were still good, so they got ordered and I wanted for them to come in to the dealership. When I picked them up, I could see they had been modified by VW for more blade tension on the windshield. The new "one-piece" base/arm looked more like a early '70's wiper arm, had a more serious "tension spring" and worked much better. They also used the later "pinch-bolt method of clamping down onto the '67 wiper shaft, so very secure and less-damaging method of mounting. Didn't look much like the original base and arm, but worked great. I tried them out for a while, but when I located very nice used units, I swapped back to the original look.

I think I still have them somewhere, and perhaps I'll locate them and post up a shot or two. They had the same Bus part number, but a different modification letter as I remember.

Actually, I don't even mount the wiper base/arm/baldes on my Buses unless I need to have them inspected. I use "Rain-X" on the glass and don't really need the blades anymore. I've got them inside each Bus, but don't run with them...

Bill Bowman
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I'm looking for these license plate frames for my fleet:
Coeur D'Alene - Lake Shore Volkswagen
Mission VW - San Fernando
Thornton VW - Stockton

Thanks for any help!

[ToolBox]

[BulliBill]

Yeah... yeah... I seem to remember talk of a recall, and these blade/arms were the eventual fix.

Bill
_________________
I'm looking for these license plate frames for my fleet:
Coeur D'Alene - Lake Shore Volkswagen
Mission VW - San Fernando
Thornton VW - Stockton

Thanks for any help!

[Mile High Puma]

I used to use Rain-X on my '66 Beatle and it is amazing how good it sheds water and slush, just have to do it on a regular basis if it is a daily driver.
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1965 Velvet Green DC

[oorwullie]

in my split bus days i used french wiper blades from a renault 4, same screwed on fitting to the arm as standard split bus but they were the modern "sprung" type blades.