One (not both) of my wipers stopped working.

[Rick Lee]

WTF? It never rains here, but it sure has the last few days and so I'm not riding the bike. Today on the hwy in heavy rain the left wiper just stopped. I rolled the window down to give it a shove and it looks like it's trying to come back to life. But it won't move. Tonight in the garage I moved it around and it moves very freely. The right side will not move when car and wiper stalk is off. I turned the stalk on with the hood up and looked around, but can't see anything moving back there or hear and weird noises. How to fix this? I can live with one wiper, but if it stops in heavy rain on the hwy., it's gonna be a problem.

BTW, I reindexed them many years ago to come to rest on the passenger side, just the wiper splines, not the motor. I also removed the relay so I have no intermittent and have to let off the stalk when they're in the farthest right position. But they stopped today while on steady.

[cgfen]

is the wiper arm firmly clamped to the splined shaft?
if yes, i got nothing, sorry.

Craig

[Rick Lee]

Yes, they're held onto splines by a small nut. Nuts are equally tight on both. It almost feels like the splines are totally stripped, but I can't imagine how that could happen.

[Joe Bob]

Pull the arm. Look to see how stripped the splines are, both inside the arm and the shaft. Hopefully it's the arm which is replaceable.

A temporary repair can be a couple of turns of white Teflon tape.

[Rick Lee]

You win. It was the splines. I pulled the cap off and the nut was pretty loose. I pulled the arm off and the splines in it were pretty much gone. But they're fine on the shaft. Pelican only lists them up to 1994 and mine is a '96 993. So do I need to call Suncoast? Anyone have a spare laying around? This isn't urgent, as it never rains here, but I broke the cap while removing it and then destroyed the wiper blade while pushing the arm out of it. So the car doesn't look great with just one wiper at the moment. Probably time to replace the dry rotted blades anyway.

[cgfen]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

You win. It was the splines. I pulled the cap off and the nut was pretty loose. I pulled the arm off and the splines in it were pretty much gone. But they're fine on the shaft. Pelican only lists them up to 1994 and mine is a '96 993. So do I need to call Suncoast? Anyone have a spare laying around? This isn't urgent, as it never rains here, but I broke the cap while removing it and then destroyed the wiper blade while pushing the arm out of it. So the car doesn't look great with just one wiper at the moment. Probably time to replace the dry rotted blades anyway.

glad to read that it is a relatively simple repair.
contact your local racer dudes, they may have some wiper arm take offs.
try the suggested teflon tape fix in the interim.

cheers

Craig

[Rick Lee]

Ok, silly problem now. The 993 driver's side wiper arm is $300 and the 964 one is $25. No way am I spending that kind of $$ on what's mostly a decoration, since it so rarely rains here. Does anyone know if the two parts are interchangeable? At that price delta, I'll probably just get the 964 one anyway and live with it. But if anyone knows, please advise.

[Quadcammer]

i had a similar issue and what I learned is that a new wiper arm comes with no splines. The motor shaft actually creates the splines on the arm when you tighten the nut.

I was able to fix my problem by really cranking down on the nuts.

If you are really concerned, i've heard a few layers of aluminum foil will do the job. The other option is to coat the arm with loctite and crank down on the bolt.

The wiper arm prices are absolutely outrageous.

[Rick Lee]

I might be able to salvage it, but if the 964 part will work, $25 is perfectly reasonable. The 993 part price is not.

[Quadcammer]

The 964s wipers are much farther apart. I think this would prevent them from being located properly on a 993.

[Rick Lee]

Just found a place that has them for $11. It says it's for an '83SC, but has the same 964 part number. Looking at Google and eBay photos of 964 wiper arms and winshields, I think I'm gonna try the 964 part.

[Quadcammer]

You're welcome to try, but I think this is going to be a waste for you.