Wipers slow down and finally stop.

[Brian Westlake]

I was leaving the shopping centre the other day in my FB when it started raining heavily. I turned on the wipers (Electric) and they slowed down and eventually stopped dead in the middle of the screen. I put the car to bed and proceeded to drive anything else to work that would run (S Valiant????) even though it hasnt rained since. Today when I got a minute to have a look, I pulled out the wiper motor, after finding one under the house with a hornets nest on it and another one with the lines on it like an early brake drum. I wish I hadnt pulled mine out, I found that all 3 seemed to work well when I tested them including the one I just pulled out. I have a Blow Through vent heater on my car, but Id hate to try to do up that little fine thread 7/16 nut with a Warmaride heater or a parcel shelf. The problem ended up being the left hand wiper pivot being nearly seized and bent quite a bit also. When Mr Passion Fingers freed it up somewhat, he put it in the vice and tried to tap it straight with a hammer, but it just flew in half instead! I dug through various Tank Fairlane wiper parts and found a complete Holden EK linkage that I must have bought years ago which was very rough looking but I was able to tap through the square shaft on the end of the left pivot ( with a light grind) and tap it on my N/S wiper rod. I put a little tack on with the Mig just to keep it tight and oiled it. I also jammed a heap of oil down the right side pivot by putting a rag around the pivot where it comes out of the scuttle vent and squirting oil backwards underneath the pivot spline and working the rod until I was sure it was loose and free. All this because I was too lazy to pull off the drivers side pivot. Result. Wipers seem to work fine ( no rain yet, only bucket!) But it shows how you can tend to assume stuff.
Tony PrestlitePariah