Re: Wiper problems - need advice

[NJNagel@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/12/00 18:54:35 Eastern Standard Time, Vaughn8v@aol.com 
writes:

> Okay, so we just got the year's first snowfall here.  And my girlfriend 
goes 
> 
>  out and hops into the Scirocco (which has about half an inch or so of snow 
>  covering it) and what does she do?  No, she does not wipe the snow off the 
>  windshield before trying to actuate the wipers!!  So now, only the 
passenger 
> 
>  side wiper wipes and the driver's side acts like it wants to and sometimes 
> it 
>  will come up halfway before falling back down.  Do I need to replace that 
>  wiper arm shaft?  Has anyone done this?  Do I need to rip out the whole 
>  linkage frame assembly?  Is it wrecking yard material?
>  
>  Thanks
>  Ben
>  
>  --

Ben,

First you take the girlfriend out to a nice dinner, and when you're both nice 
and relaxed explain in a calm, soothing voice that wiper linkages on old VW's 
are delicate little animals that need proper care and loving attention.  
Actually that pretty much goes for the whole car, unless I'm driving it, in 
which case it's a bad little animal that needs to be punished ;)

Now to fix your car - just take the wiper arm off (hell, take 'em both off 
now that you're this far into it.)  take a pocketknife and clean out all the 
splines on the piece sticking out of the cowl.  They will be full of soft 
metal that wore off of the wiper arm.  You can also use a small wire brush if 
you have one, it will be quicker (like one of those toothbrush type things 
you used to see in blister packs in the checkout line at Hechinger's)  now 
look at the wiper arm.  if the hole in the arm isn't too wallowed out you're 
just about done.  If it looks really bad or ovaled go to a junkyard and get 
one that looks better.  Don't worry that there's no splines on it, there 
weren't any on there when they were new.  But before you put the wiper arm 
back on drip a few drops of motor oil on each shaft and let the wiper motor 
run for a few minutes.  Wipe all the oil off and put everything back together 
(note: turn the wipers off by turning the switch off not turning off the key. 
 you want everything in the "park" position.  sorry if I'm insulting your 
intelligence but it's easy to do stupid stuff if you're working outside in 
the cold.)  It's a good idea to flip up the little caps and put sone oil on 
there every year to keep everything in good working order.  If you're really 
anal you can pull the whole wiper transmission out of the car and pop 
everything apart and grease it up well,  it's not that hard, you just have to 
move the ECU out of the way before you do it.  I like Redline bearing grease 
but that's just because I have an old tube sitting around.

good luck and HTH

nate

PS - not directly related to your topic but whenever I get a new car I always 
check to make sure that the wiper blades are perfectly perpendicular to the 
windshield.  If they're not bend the wiper arms by tweaking them with a 
crescent wrench.  Simple procedure that makes your blades last much longer.

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