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help with hidden wipers

6K views 12 replies 6 participants last post by  mr409 
#1 ·
got a 69 daily driver recently. The wipers won't park like they should. I removed the main arm that drives the both wiper rods to adjust it. But adjustment doesn't fix the problem. It seems the drivers side splined shaft on which the wiper arm attachs can't be adjusted far enough to park the drivers wiper. I think I could get the passenger side to park if I move it on the splined shaft. But the drivers side has a keyway in the wiper arm that prevents me from adusting the arm to a different position. Even with the end disconnected from the bell crank I can't get the drivers side splined and keywayed shaft to go far enough to park the wiper. My only recourse seems to be to grind off the keyway on the shaft so I can adjust the drivers arm better. But it has that other arm that attaches with a carberator style clip. Not sure if I have to bend that too. Any ideas what is wrong? The motor seems to park when it is turned off. The problem seems to be in the position of hte wiper arms on the windshield. They are about 2 inches too high. When they wipe, they go all the way to the end of the drivers side windshield. No need to go that far it seems to me. Any experience here would be greatly appreciated.
 
#2 ·
On my 69 SS, when I turn the wipers off they go down, then stop, then go farther down below the hood in the park position. I had problems with them going on past the down position and into park position. I unbolted and cleaned the bolts that fastened the motor to the firewall so I could get a good ground. It fixed my problem completely. It just might be your problem too.
Hope this helps.
Jody
 
#3 ·
I don't think I have problems with the motor and internal transmission assembly. When I watch the crank at the end of the wiper transmission it seems to change and try to park the wipers. But the linkage assembly seems to not permit the wiper arm on drivers side to go down all the way necessary to park. Is it possible the transmission linkage arm assembly I have is not for hidden wipers? Will the ordinary wiper assembly (those linkage arms with each splined shaft) that does not hide the wipers fit in the same holes on the cowl? As I said earlier, even with the linkage disconnected from the wiper motor crank, I can't get the drivers wiper splined shaft to go down far enough to park the drivers wiper arm. Real puzzling?
 
#4 ·
My 72 is doing the exact same thing. I managed to get the passenger side to go down all the way by adjusting the arm but the driver side has the key so it can't be moved.

Looking forward to hearing more on this....
 
#6 ·
I confirmed there is nothing wrong with the motor assembly as I removed the drivers wiper arm and adjusted the passenger arm to 3\8 inch above the stainless stop. when I run the wipers the passenger side works fine. It wipes the windows correctly, then parks down after a brief delay at the end of the cycle.
I won't help me to grind the slots longer on the wiper arm at the crank to get more adjustment, because when I have the arm disconnected at the crank when I push the arm in the cowl all the way to the drivers side, I still can't get enough stroke to park the drivers wiper down. It seems to be hitting something in the cowl area I can't see when I push it all the way trying to get that keyway on the shaft down more. I'm thinking that the cam assembly on the drivers side output shaft (where the spline is) is wrong some how.
 
#7 ·
I have the same problem with my '68 elCamino, passager side parks & driver side sits up about 2 inches. I took off the driver's wiper arm & had the same problem, can not reposition the wiper arm on the splined shaft because of the keyway. I put the wiper arm back on & thought I'll deal with later....much later! Dave
 
#9 ·
yes, the drivers side has the second arm that attaches to a pin with a carburetor style clip. I believe they call that the articulated wiper. I'm getting close to grinding that keyway off unless someone has the correct remedy. there must be something that we are missing here.
 
#10 ·
Yep, mine has the second arm too.

I'll wait for you to grind your keyway bhawk to see if it works. LOL :D
 
#11 ·
Total and absolute success. Finally. I filed off half the keyway and put the drivers arm back on. You can then move the drivers arm downward about 1 or 2 splines more. It sits perfectly on the stainless and works excellent now. When you put the wipers back on the stub shafts, position each wiper about 3/8 inch above the stainless stop. When the wipers run and stop, they will be a bit farther away than that, but hides nicely.

One thing to look for that may cause this problem. When I first looked at mine, I could see the drivers wiper blade (rubber part) was hooking on the top edge of the stainless trim piece preventing it from going lower. The stainless trim had lifted off the window glass a bit allowing the wiper ruber to hook on it. When I removed the stainless, I found dirt and evergreen needles under it, causing it to build up. I suspect that once the wiper rubber hooks up on the stainless and wont close down farther, it causes unnecessary wear on the mechanisms which result in too much slack in all the parts to close properly. However the modification I did fixes that. Try yours and tell me how it goes, to finish off this post.
 
#12 ·
Will do. It will be a few days until I can get to do mine though.

I found my lower chrome strip was sticking up too and thought that was causing the wipers not to park. I took off the chrome and used some 3-M strip caulking to get it to stick down to the glass. Needless to say, the wipers still didn't park after that.

Im betting moving the wiper will work on mine too.
 
#13 ·
Just got mine done and it works great! I ground off the keyway and adjusted the arm and now it parks perfectly.

Now...what else can I fix?
 
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