Windshield Wiper Broken In Cowl

[crazyrog17]

The driver's side windshield wiper had a lot of play in it.

The other day while the wipers were running, they pretty much sheared the pivot off of the metal inside the cowl. Now the wipers flat out dont work because the driver's side is not held to anything and the motor is just pulling on the linkages and stalling.

It's rainy season here, this is not good.

Fixes?

[fattie]

jb weld?

[Paul39]

There is a plastic cover on the bottom of the wiper arm, lift that, there is a nut, remove the nut and rubber cover, another nut, remove that and the shaft drops into the space under the wipers.

There is a plate behind the wiper motor, remove motor and plate and you can get into the space.

Make notes on how everything comes apart. When you see what has broken, you can get parts or put together what fell off.

Paul

[denguy]

This also happened to my 92. The metal under the cowl is real thin and it rusted out under the wiper mechanism. I ended up cutting out a 5x5" section of the firewall so i could get into that area. I bolted in a piece of solid sheet metal to the inner cowl that i could attach the wiper mechanism to. It all ended up lining up and works fine. the key was cutting the hole in the firewall in just the right place on the drivers side. then you can get a wrench in there under the inner cowl piece to hold the nuts[ 1/4-20 insert lock nuts] for your screws that are holding the new base plate in place on which the wiper mechanism is mounted. I got a wrench on screw heads thru the hole in the cowel that the wiper mechanism pokes out thru.

[crazyrog17]

Yep, that was exactly the problem, denguy.

I made a plate of aluminum about 4" x 6" and drilled a hole in it for the wiper base. Took apart the broken wiper base and fit it through the plate. The plate sat on top of the broken cowl so it sandwiched it between the aforementioned metal plate that comes stock and the new aluminum plate.

Coincidentally, my black plastic spacer broke so I made a bunch of 'washers' out of the rest of the aluminum plate stock with the drill bit and a cut off wheel. Bolted it all back up and it's fine! Got new wiper blades, so I'm ready for the storm tonight.

Side note... what size is the rear wiper blade? The guy at the counter told me it was 15" but I think it's too long.

[thered56]

haha I guess you missed my post in the What have you done to your Festiva today!? thread.

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showpost.php?p=407892&postcount=130

Good to hear it's fixed!

[crazyrog17]

Thanks! Sorry, I did miss it. I've been so happy to be able to drive my car, that's all I've been doing! Only down a quarter tank too