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jackbombay
Samba Member
Joined: October 19, 2007
Posts: 2723
Location: Eastern Idaho
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 Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 6:48 am Post subject: |
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| Wildthings wrote: |
| The problem with the wipers is that the stock washer will not fit down over the splines at all, so once the wipers arms have any wear at all, you just end up tightening the washer against the shaft while putting little or no pressure against the wiper arm itself. |
I made a shim from an old coke can and put some blue loctite on both sides of the little shim, tightened the nut down and it was fine for almost a year, but I turned on the wipers when there was a couple of inches of snow on the windshield and one of the wipers moved. I'm going to redo it with red loctite and it should be good for many years I think.
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?Waldo?
Samba Member
Joined: February 22, 2006
Posts: 9752
Location: Where?
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| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 7:01 am Post subject: |
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A few years ago in the middle of the night some hoodlum decided to break my wiper (my house was in between the downtown bars and the college dorms...). I came out to find that the little threaded shaft area had broken off. Being irked at the thought of pulling the dash for such a stupid event, I ground the top of the splined taper flat, drilled a hole in the center and tapped it to accept an allen head bolt. It worked slicker 'n snot on a doorknob. That same repair would work fine for anyone whose threads are gone and drastically reduce the amount of labor necessary to fix the wipers.
Andrew
P.S. I get a kick out of the "peace of mind", "piece of mind" phrases and how often the other one is used. I wish I knew the hoodlum that broke my wiper so I could give him a peace of my mind. Ahhh, I've found my piece of mind...  |
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Wildthings
Samba Member
Joined: March 13, 2005
Posts: 50338
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| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 9:32 am Post subject: |
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| jackbombay wrote: |
| I made a shim from an old coke can and put some blue loctite on both sides of the little shim, tightened the nut down and it was fine for almost a year, but I turned on the wipers when there was a couple of inches of snow on the windshield and one of the wipers moved. I'm going to redo it with red loctite and it should be good for many years I think. |
JB Weld would be a better bet to last a while, but from experience it still isn't a perfect solution. A moderately thick flat washer with a large enough hole to fit over the first of the tapered splines is the ticket. The problem is finding a washer with the right hole size, the right thickness, and the right OD. If the Go Westy kit has all this for the price they are charging, it is a deal.
Another addition that people could make is a correctly sized circuit breaker in the wiring to the wipers. The wiper arm/shaft connection is just too chincy to handle the full torque of the motor when the wipers are frozen to the windshield. A circuit breaker which popped when the amp draw spiked would help here. If you live in the land of ice and snow disabling the park function is a good idea as well. I have done this on other rigs, but not the Vanagon. Without a park you could leave the wipers vertical on the windshield so that a heavy wet snow fall won't twist them on the shafts and you can cut them off momentarily at full wipe so you can reach out and beat the ice off. |
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msinabottle
Samba Member
Joined: September 20, 2005
Posts: 3492
Location: Denver Area, Colorado
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| Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2009 9:52 pm Post subject: BTDT |
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I finally got this done. I went back to the world's greatest hardware store and traded in the 14 mm ID wavy washers for 14 mm OD wavy washers, they gave me no trouble... Those are a BIT big, perhaps, but the nut did cinch down on them and there IS something to be said for greater surface area contact on a lock washer.
It turned out there was a very small THIN wavy washer on the driver's side windshield wiper, but it was pretty flat--the new one was a lot bigger and a lot more 'three dimensional.' I took advantage of the partial disassembly to adjust the windshield wipers' 'parked' position, to what I figured the Bentley meant as 70mm from the edge of the rubber windshield gasket to the edge of the wiper arm. Then I torqued both the outer nuts down to 43 inch/pounds using a torque screwdriver I acquired more or less for this purpose. I used blue Loc-Tite on both nuts.
Here's a picture:
The only real way to test all that is to drive Winston in a rainstorm. That'll happen. As a failsafe, I also put Rain-X on every windshield of which I am in charge. But, everything should work just fine.
Best!
_________________
'Winston,' '84 1.9 WBX Westy
Vanagon Poet Laureate: "I have suffered in
many ways, but never, never, never in silence." |
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tclark
Samba Member
Joined: November 21, 2005
Posts: 926
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| Posted: Mon Mar 22, 2010 5:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Andrew A. Libby wrote: |
I ground the top of the splined taper flat, drilled a hole in the center and tapped it to accept an allen head bolt. It worked slicker 'n snot on a doorknob. That same repair would work fine for anyone whose threads are gone and drastically reduce the amount of labor necessary to fix the wipers.
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yah was up skiing again this week end did the dumbASS turn wiper on with windshield full a snow .... stripped the shaft maneuver...
tried the die first to bring threads down to 5mm from 6mm but that did not bite when i gave it a bit of torque 
So I went out got a 5MM-8 pitch-1" allan head bolt, used the dremel cut off blade to off the shaft , then center punched it & drilled in 1 1/4"+ with 1/8 bit, then enlarged that with 5/32 bit, then tapped it with a 5MM-8
Now since the end of the tap is tapered you wont get the bolt in as far as you have drilled so you want a 3/4" to 1" 5MM, you wont get a 6MM in & have any side metal left ...
MR Libby has now saved me the TK $250 sliding door roller upgrade with his patio door rollerball bearing replacement & now the $75 new wiper shaft & monkey time under the dash ..
thx MrLibby
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89 Westy with TDI AHU 1.9 manual lots of mods
85 GL 1.9, auto (for sold) |
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randywebb
Samba Member
Joined: February 15, 2005
Posts: 3815
Location: Greater Metropolitan Nimrod, Orygun
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 11:50 am Post subject: |
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I just got the kit from GoWesty, but there are NO large washers that would fit over the wiper hubs (where the arms attach). I got 4 brown plastic caps, but no rubber seals either.
I did get a bunch of small (M5?) nuts etc. but I am wondering what's wrong. There's no way this will replace all the old hardware taken off the hubs.
Do they usually ship the kit in two packages or something?
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1986 2.1L Westy 2wd Auto Trans. |
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BillM
Samba Member
Joined: June 18, 2004
Posts: 1381
Location: Stonington,CT
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 12:59 pm Post subject: |
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Is this the kit you ordered from gowesty
http://tinyurl.com/3hudlqc
I just ordered this last week for the caps and cones the new hardware is just a
bonus. I already have a larger washer that I put on years ago that just fits over the shaft. The stock washer then pushes in this washer
that I think puts the pressure on the wiper arm itself to keep it from slipping plus I cleaned the spline with a razor knife last rime I had them off. I have had no issues yet. I learned my lesson with these wiper arms on my way to everybus 10 years ago when both went out in a violent down pour on a five lane highway during rush hour.Never frigging again.
Bill |
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randywebb
Samba Member
Joined: February 15, 2005
Posts: 3815
Location: Greater Metropolitan Nimrod, Orygun
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 1:28 pm Post subject: |
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that's it - guess I was mistaken when I thought it contained all the new hardware you need...
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1986 2.1L Westy 2wd Auto Trans. |
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tetonclimberhiker
Samba Member
Joined: December 02, 2009
Posts: 10
Location: Jackson, Wyoming
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| Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 9:08 pm Post subject: Wiper Fix, drilling and tapping, it's 2013 Has it held up? |
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After completely stripping the nut on the wiper shaft rendering it useless I did much research here on TheSamba and elsewhere on a reasonable repair method that did not require removing the dash. Reading through the threads dating back to 2003. I found the method of drilling and tapping a bolt to be the most obvious sturdy repair available. Many posters were dissing this method as blasphemy! Real men pulled the dash and repeated the same process with the same factory parts that fail under pressure. I did the repair today following the steps presented by Mr Libby and others.. Took my time, was precise and it worked like a charm. This seems way more stout than OE. How has this held up over time? Any thoughts?  |
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Bntbrl
Samba Member
Joined: September 04, 2012
Posts: 436
Location: Seattle, Wa
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| Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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I wish I had read this earlier. I tried to tighten my wipers up just a tad bit too much. Snapped the threaded part off. I thought of tapping the nub, but I opted to pull the dash. Big PITA for such a simple thing to break.
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1984 Vanagon Westfalia 1.9 wbx
www.DIYSeattle.com |
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Californio
Samba Member
Joined: May 17, 2007
Posts: 1305
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| Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 6:44 am Post subject: |
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| If you lube the splines and threads with anti-seize before you torque the nuts down, you get higher effective pressure holding the assembly together, and this pressure seems to hold the wiper arms in place longer. Since loctite won't work with anti-seize, I replaced the nuts with nyloks. Much longer time between adjustments, in my experience. |
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