Windshield Frame/Wiper Binding Issues

[gr8dain]

I think it is spanksrjs that you are referring to who would want to tack weld the pivot arm. My pivots are fine. I just am still getting clicking and wiping with no pressure and bending linkage. They feel like they will fall apart again.

 

[spankrjs]

Broken wiper picture.

One quick autopsy photo.

The little flat arm with the square hole fell off the wiper arm pivot post. Once I find the spacer that goes behind the flat bar, it is either still inside the windshield frame, or fell down inside the heater box (if in heater box, it can stay there), I will press it back together, then put a small tack weld on it. That should hold it together. Should be an easy fix

One other interesting note: the shaft that rotates the wiper blade, which passes through the wiper pivot body, DOES NOT ride on any type of bushing. Eventually, the steel post will start to wear on the pivot body, resulting in slack/noise/binding.

Very crappy design

 

[spankrjs]

Got the wipers back together

I lost the little spacer, but some substituted washer did the trick. I put the pivot back together, go my buddy Chuck to put a little weld on it, should be good to go now.

Picture of the little "bugger weld", this should keep the flat piece from falling off the pivot shaft.

The passenger side pivot arm got bent when the driver side pivot fell apart, but I was able to straighten it, should be good to go.

One quick picture, showing the difference between a "factory" pivot on the right, and a "replacement" pivot on the left. Note that on the factory piece, after pressing the flat arm on, they "smushed" the end of the shaft, thus securely locking the two pieces together. On the made in China POS "replacement", they did not. If you are using "replacement" parts, might not be a bad idea to go ahead and put a tack weld on them before you install them, just to be safe

The wipers are working again, with no binding. But, the driver side pivot is a little noisy. The shaft turning inside the pivot makes some noise. I greased it before I put it back together, but you can hear it turning.

I am going to try to find a factory driver side pivot, and the factory arm that goes from the wiper motor to the driver side pivot, just in case. If my current system breaks again, I am going to re-drill the WS frame, put the motor in the "correct" spot, and install all factory wiper parts. The "replacement" parts suck

My "custom adjustable wiper arm" is still working fine. The replacement parts are made of softer,crappier metal. The long passenger side pivot arm is so soft you can bend the end of it by hand. All in all, my method works, but I would still rather have the motor in the "correct" spot. If my crappy replacement parts break again, I am going to re-drill the wiper motor attachment holes, and replace all the aftermarket wiper parts with either NOS, or good used factory parts. For as much as I drive my Scrambler, and especially on cross country trips, the crappy made in China POS stuff just is not going to cut it

 

[gr8dain]

Put in YJ parts today. Hopefully this works for me.

By the way, the crown pivot I replaced had the problem of the flat piece almost falling off due to slipping off o the post. I had noticed a bit of in and out play that kept the lower part of the blade off of the windshield.

 

[Spieg]

Put in YJ parts today. Hopefully this works for me.

How is this working for you? How did you enlarge the pivot holes (and to what diameter)? I'm replacing my windshield today and thought it may be a good time to update the linkage and arms to YJ stuff.

 

[gr8dain]

It is working great. I have luckily not had too much rain since, but we did have a driving rain one day where I left the wipers going for at least 20 minutes solid and not one issue.

As for the hole, I used the nut for holding the pivot (holds from the front) as a template for the size. As for cutting it I was going to use a hole saw but ended up using a dremel. But my windshield is fiberglass (which was one of the causes of my troubles to begin with).

And with the YJ linkage it is easier to install since the right wiper pivot is not permanently attached to the long link. Being able to break it into 3 pieces to install. Very nice.

Go for it.

 

[spankrjs]

Got the wipers back together

I lost the little spacer, but some substituted washer did the trick. I put the pivot back together, go my buddy Chuck to put a little weld on it, should be good to go now.

Picture of the little "bugger weld", this should keep the flat piece from falling off the pivot shaft.

The passenger side pivot arm got bent when the driver side pivot fell apart, but I was able to straighten it, should be good to go.

One quick picture, showing the difference between a "factory" pivot on the right, and a "replacement" pivot on the left. Note that on the factory piece, after pressing the flat arm on, they "smushed" the end of the shaft, thus securely locking the two pieces together. On the made in China POS "replacement", they did not. If you are using "replacement" parts, might not be a bad idea to go ahead and put a tack weld on them before you install them, just to be safe

The wipers are working again, with no binding. But, the driver side pivot is a little noisy. The shaft turning inside the pivot makes some noise. I greased it before I put it back together, but you can hear it turning.

I am going to try to find a factory driver side pivot, and the factory arm that goes from the wiper motor to the driver side pivot, just in case. If my current system breaks again, I am going to re-drill the WS frame, put the motor in the "correct" spot, and install all factory wiper parts. The "replacement" parts suck

My "custom adjustable wiper arm" is still working fine. The replacement parts are made of softer,crappier metal. The long passenger side pivot arm is so soft you can bend the end of it by hand. All in all, my method works, but I would still rather have the motor in the "correct" spot. If my crappy replacement parts break again, I am going to re-drill the wiper motor attachment holes, and replace all the aftermarket wiper parts with either NOS, or good used factory parts. For as much as I drive my Scrambler, and especially on cross country trips, the crappy made in China POS stuff just is not going to cut it

On my way to north Alabama this weekend, the driver side pivot broke, again, just like what is pictured above. The little weld failed, and the flat part of the pivot assembly fell off

So, I got to drive 4 hours to the park, in the rain, and then 6 hours back home on Sunday, in the rain, with no wipers Good thing I have 'experience" driving with no wipers!!!

Back to the drawing board.

I might see if I can move the motor, but I don't think that is possible.
Maybe my "adjustable short arm" is too heavy, causing the driver side pivot to fall apart.

I will update.

 

[wm69]

I started using RainX washer fluid. Helps a LOT on rainy windshields. Haven't had any problems with my wipers yet on the green Jeep, but the tan CJ-7 with the fiberglass windshield frame has wiper problems written all over it. Something I'll address sometime soon hopefully.

 

[gr8dain]

That sucks. Seriously consider YJ parts. I am glad I did. And glad I got old original stuff rather than Crown.


Dain

 

[BOBCAT]

I replaced original with wrangle linkage on 2 different scramblers with great results. Easy to do. You just have to enlarge pivot holes. Easier to get stronger wipe arms and better blades. Just buy for wrangler .

 

[spankrjs]

Before I buy any "upgrade" parts, I am going to give the stock wipers one more try, this time with a NOS motor and good/used factory linkage:

On my windshield frame, the motor sits too far toward the center, so I need to push it to the driver side about 1/8"-3/16". So, I bored out the one hole and enlarged the slot:

The slight hole enlarging on the motor was not enough, so I bored it out further with my Dremel. I can not make this hole any larger to the side I need it to be, this is as much material as I can remove:

With this set up, and the motor bolts slightly loose, I get full travel with no binding/contact.

In the below picture, it is not as close to the "stop" as it gets. It almost touches the "stop", but just misses it:

And of course, the picture that shows how close it gets to the "stop", the arm gets in the way LOL:

I am going to space the outboard end of the motor out, toward the cab, slightly, by stacking a washer or two between the motor and the windshield frame. This will give me a bit more clearance on the "stop" when I tighten the bolts down.

So far, these modifications are working. No binding, and the little pivots are not hitting the built in "stops".

Hopefully, this fixes the issue.

That's it for now

 

[gr8dain]

Any play on the pivots? I had a big problem with that on my Crown parts. Oh, and Good Luck!


Dain

 

[spankrjs]

Any play on the pivots? I had a big problem with that on my Crown parts. Oh, and Good Luck!


Dain

The new to me used parts are working perfect

The Crown stuff I pulled out, not so much. The driver side pivot fell apart. It is ruined. The shaft, the one that pivots side to side, completely fell out of the pivot

I have had to space the outer edge of the motor outward from the windshield frame with some washers. By spacing the motor, leaving it slightly loose, and boring out two of the mounting holes, the wiper system is working correctly, no binding.

But, when I get some free time, I am going to slot out the holes in the windshield frame so that I can get everything tightened down correctly

 

[SHLTR2]

The new to me used parts are working perfect


But, when I get some free time, I am going to slot out the holes in the windshield frame so that I can get everything tightened down correctly

How will you tighten the motor down if you slot the holes in the frame? Can you really reach all the way back in there?

 

[gr8dain]

How will you tighten the motor down if you slot the holes in the frame? Can you really reach all the way back in there?

It is tough. But it can be done. Trust me. It helps to have the nut on the motor side and have a lock washer on the inside with the bolt head. And have a bent wrench to hold it inside the w/s frame. Ugh. At least that is what I did.


Dain

 

[mysunnshine]

Or the best fix is to live in phoenix where it virtually never rains at all. Then You never need the wipers.

Sent from my SCH-I545

 

[cdvcj8]

It is tough. But it can be done. Trust me. It helps to have the nut on the motor side and have a lock washer on the inside with the bolt head. And have a bent wrench to hold it inside the w/s frame. Ugh. At least that is what I did.


Dain

Your other post made me start researching this. Now I realize that you DO have better wipers than me. Can you give some info (parts list ) on what and where your purchased the YJ stuff? Perfect time to do this as I need to:

1) Fix my crappy paint job on windshield
2) Fish and connect wire for mirror map light
3) Repair stripped holes for passenger headrest

Thanks,
Chris V.

 

[gr8dain]

Your other post made me start researching this. Now I realize that you DO have better wipers than me. Can you give some info (parts list ) on what and where your purchased the YJ stuff? Perfect time to do this as I need to:

1) Fix my crappy paint job on windshield
2) Fish and connect wire for mirror map light
3) Repair stripped holes for passenger headrest

Thanks,
Chris V.

I cannot give you a parts list with numbers as I went to a junked YJ and pulled the parts myself. But here is the list

Wiper arms
Wiper pivots
Long link
Short link
(Basically I used the entire linkage/transmission from the YJ)

I am using my original CJ motor and switch. So I just drilled the pivot holes bigger and connected the linkage up. It is actually easier as the long link disconnected from the passenger side pivot so I did not have to play games to feed the link into the windshield frame.

The short link connected to the motor post just like the cj linkage did. So direct swap there. I just wanted to get original YJ parts and not repro stuff. That is why I pulled it from a scrap Jeep locally. Sorry I do not have the part numbers.

Also I am using 13 inch blades as that was what was on the YJ arms and they have better coverage than the 11 inch blades. Yes they hit the seal at the top but not a problem to me. Much easier to find these blades locally than the cj ones.


Dain

 

[Nokesie]

I’ve got an 85 CJ7 that I’m having the exact same problems with. Here is what I’m trying. So far so good. It was going beyond the limit and binding up.

 

[Nokesie]

I used a rubber bump stop.