The wipers on my car have always been really slow (something that I've been leaving on the back burner for a while) and finally they went "cupoot" on me a couple days ago so I finally needed to do something about it to speed them up. Replacing the fuse got them going again (I think it was just taking way to much power to move them which was the cause of the blown fuse) so by taking appart all the moving wiper rods under the cowl and greasing every moving part got them to speed up move like their new! iT made a huge improvement then before. A whole lot safer too non the less. Any how, I thought I'd just suggest that taking appart the rods under the cowl and greasing everything really makes a huge improvement and is proably a big help to the motor so it doesn't have to work so hard.

I did the work you mentioned plus I cleaned the brushes inside the motor. When you take apart the motor, make sure you find all the little brush springs that go flying everywhere. You'll need 'em.

What's the best grease to use for the wiper arm pivots? I need to do mine as well.

I would use a General Purpose grease for the project. As long as it is lubbed it will move much better.

a good spray type white lithium should work great. I used it on my window tracks and on my wiper arms when I did the tear down this last winter. Also, go with the more expensive silicone wipers. they make a big difference cause they don't Drag as easy, they last longer and wipe beautifully.

Thanks for the tid-bit 76Datsun280z, wipers are usually overlooked and VERY important around here. Especially this week.

Dave.

Thanks for advice,

cleaning out all the crud and grime and then re-greasing seems to be the trick. Lithium all weather (something like that) grease from Napa seems fine.

Thanks for the tip. Mine are slow also so as soon as I get her running again I'll put that at the top of my to-do list.

Chris

Did you take the PIVOTS themselves apart? Those are the most troublesome part of the system as they are the ones that bind.

Here's a series of links which address various points from some years back:

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15587

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2487

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17148

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14432&page=1&pp=15

Sadly, one of the best articles on the subject is missing. It was written by Bambikiller240 (Carl), who unfortunately passed away a year or so ago. It thoroughly detailed the teardown and rebuild of the whole system.

If Mike can retrieve it from the long gone archives that would be a boon to this site, if not, and someone has the text AND pictures (as they were excellent) maybe we can get Mike to post it under Bambi's handle.

I'll see if I have anything in my archives.

But aside from the wiper link pivots, the MOST important part of the system is the actual pivots themselves. The ones that poke through the cowl. Those tend to get corroded on the inside and will cause you problems even after you clean the link pivots.

2¢

E

Here is a check list I posted on an Oz site some time ago re wipers: -

1) Disconnect the wiper arm linkage from the rear of the motor, switch it on and check it has reasonable slow and fast speeds.

YES/NO?

2) Now check the mechanical linkage, you should be able to operate the wipers by rotating the motor arm by hand.

(Lift the arms off the screen or remove them to eliminate drag on the glass.)

YES/NO?

NO to 1) means motor is tired.

NO to 2) means that the pivots and linkages need a damn good lubing!

Fixing the pivots is relatively easy, just be patient in getting them apart if they are dry and corroded. Lots of CRC-556 and gentle pressure over several days and they should eventually come apart. There is, or should be, a wuzzy little circlip on the end of the shaft, remove and ditch it. Replace it with a decent external circlip from CBC.

Wire brush the shafts, thoroughly clean the tubes, lube it all with PH Zinc Oxide grease, check for smooth rotation and finally fit new weather boots to the shafts.

Applies to any car really:classic:

As a point of interest, later model Nissans have nylon wiper pivot bushings which will "never" require maintenance.

My 1985 B120 ute and my 1993 R33 Skyline have these.

Alloy housings + steel shafts + time + corrosion = :tapemouth

Sadly, one of the best articles on the subject is missing. It was written by Bambikiller240 (Carl), who unfortunately passed away a year or so ago. It thoroughly detailed the teardown and rebuild of the whole system.

Do you remember if it is on 240Z.org or classiczcars.com and what year/month, you can sometimes retrieve an article from the internet archive wayback machine off http://www.archive.org. This is especially true if folks were cross linking their web sites to Bambikiller240's article as Google's archive may have it as well.

Its got to be somewhere as there is no delete button on the internet...:paranoid:

Did you take the PIVOTS themselves apart? Those are the most troublesome part of the system as they are the ones that bind.

I did to clean out the dirt and grime that was in there and spraying them off with a cleaner to clean them up.