wiper park-reversal project: what am I doing wrong?

Formerly Steve Wilkinson · 06-26-2005, 04:08 PM

In my now-endless pursuit of lightness, I figgered that losing the weight and aerodynamic drag of one wiper blade would be worth at least 10 mph, so I went through all the proper--I thought--motions of eliminating the passenger-side blade, reversing the blade-parking position of the driver's-side blade from the driver's left to the right by fiddling with the arm as it attaches to the wiper motor (per "101 Projects" and other sources), heating and bending the blade arm, and what I now have is a driver's-side blade that sweeps a perfect arc across the windshield from roughly 9 to 3 o'clock (as viewed from the front of the car) but that parks at 11 o'clock.

It seems to me that if I again take off the near-inaccessible nut on the wiper-motor shaft and then mechanicallly move the wiper arm to a parked position at 9 o'clock and re-attach the arm to the motor shaft, I will have a wiper arm that parks perfectly at 9 o'clock but then tries futilely to move between 7 and 1 o'clock.

Where have I forked up?

Stephan

Formerly Steve Wilkinson · 06-27-2005, 04:58 AM

Nobody got an answer?

Stephan

304065 · 06-27-2005, 05:57 AM

Stephan,

Ahh, the fabled "Project #69" from Wayne's book. I am a strong advocate of leaving the wipers exactly as they came from the factory: the SWB 911's had them park on the starboard side, and when they park, they leave a river of slush and water that runs up in the driver's face. Hence, with the change to LWB, the factory moved them in front of the driver, so the crap runs off to the side. Every time it rains, I scratch my head and wonder why anyone would want the wipers moved. Also, my co-pilot has mentioned a couple times that the starboard-parking wipers interfere with her unobstructed vision of the outside, this being a function of stature, mostly, but partly because SWB seats tend to sink down about 6" so you are sitting on the floor, like in a C-150.

But I digress. Why not reverse-reverse them, or just remove the starboard blade?

Single-wiper ala 935 had a center-mounted blade, I'll see if I can dig up a picture from the parade.

Brother · 06-27-2005, 06:02 AM

Wow, I'm totally confused as to what I just read.

I did this last week. My blades are now both in front of me. I haven't bent the arms or anything, but they don't park at 11 O'Clock. They park at about 9:30 from the perspective of the driver, and they make an arc from about 9 to 3.

Brother · 06-27-2005, 06:05 AM

Okay. Maybe I've figured out what you are asking.

Park the blade manually at 9 oclock. reconnect the motor arm and it will operate just as I said in the above post.

Ned nyna 11 · 06-27-2005, 06:48 AM

Stephan,

I have just finished fixing a similar problem in my 528. The wiper blade start and end positions were correct however they parked in a mid position.

I fixed them by separating the motor drive from the linkage with the wipers in the Park position and then moved the wiper position to the proper position before reattaching the linkage to the motor.

I am sure the logic is similar in both cars. When you switch off the wipers, power is still provided to the motor until it is deenergised by a 1 per rev switch at the motor. The wipers quit when that switch opens.
Ned