Windshield Wipers

I know I must remove the windshield wiper motor and just leave the two holes in the body, then put in new seals when I put it back together. BUT -- I cannot get the nuts off of the wiper shafts, immediately outside the body where the shaft sticks through. The whole threaded sleeve around the shaft turns, and there is no way to hold it on the other side. I'm really stumped over this one. I've shined the threads up nicely with a wire brush and hit it with a squirt of Kroil, but still, not being able to grab a nut or something on the other side, I can't figure out how to get those nuts off. Any sage wisdom would be very much appreciated.

This is a weird one. As far as I remember, the sheath (the threaded bearing part with the wiper shaft running through it) is firmly attached to the wiper frame underneath - welded in place on the frame. So I don't understand how it could be turning as you turn the nuts on the outside.

That's not answer I know, but I don't understand how that part could possibly turn.

The part that appeals to me the least is unplugging the electrical connector below the steering column and then I guess fishing the wires up through the maze under the dash and through the hole in the firewall. The reverse will be even worse -- getting the wires back through that maze to the connection point.

On mine the wires (four I think) can be disconnected at a screw connector block on the side of the wiper gear box. They are all the same colour on mine (brown) which is making it very difficult for me to trace the right wires from wiper to switch.

There is a very tight hole in the floor of the luggage area above the steering column for the wiring loom, but the wiper wires don't use that hole at all, so I guess your harness must look different to mine.

The can of the motor is mounted on the side of the gearbox, and the wiper-arm frame mounted to the gearbox too. Must be different to the curved screen bugs -- the wiper arms would have to be in a different position anyway. My motor can be removed from the gearbox easily enough (taking care of the wires leading from brushes to connector block), but getting it back on is difficult as you have to withdraw the brushes so the armature will slip between (as the motor goes back into the gearbox) and there is NO room to do it, apart from the access slots for the two nuts which hold the motor in place and the gap between motor and gearbox before it slide home (eventually fixed by wrapping a thin loop of copper wire around the brushes and pulling them into the retract position whilst sliding the motor back into place, then letting go one side of the copper loop so the wire could be withdrawn through the crack between the motor and gearbox before it was fully pushed home. I needed 4 hands for that job :-) There are three brushes - one is common and the others are for high and low speed (on mine anyway).

The fresh air box on the Super is mounted directly below the air vents between the hood and the windshield, which of course is why it's called a fresh air box. There is a deflector (rain shield) right under the vent slots to keep water off of the wiper motor and the fresh air fan.

There's lots of room inside the fresh air box -- now that I have the shafts disconnected from the holes through the body, removing a couple of bolts and the wires will have the motor and wiper assembly out -- and "installation is the reverse of removal!" :-)

My wiper is behind and completely separate from the air box, which is much simpler than your air box -- no fan. I have to completely remove the air box to get at the wiper motor frame.

It looks different to mine of course -- the flat screen. Does the motor stick out the side of the gearbox (along the frame) or out the back of the gearbox (perpendicular to the frame)?

The wiper arm assembly is completely shot. The threaded sleeves on the two wiper shafts spin freely, and I can't see any way to tighten them. The whole thing -- shaft and sleeve -- has been spinning back and forth! I thought these wipers were acting strangely. I'm gonna have to replace the whole assembly. RMMW doesn't carry it -- I've sent a note to John Connolly (Aircooled.Net).

Hope John can help, or it might mean a phone call to that wrecker you found in California (Russ' Recycling). It's an unusual part to fail -- those arms must be just about rusted shut on the threaded sleeve to force the sleeve around. Just goes to prove VW wiper motors are powerful (slow, but powerful :-)

I believe they were designed to move German snow off windscreens, so I guess that's why the gearing is rather low.

It's strange -- on ours the threaded sleeve is completely free. It's supposed to be stationary (I think) -- the sleeve stays still and the shaft rotates inside of it. With our situation the entire sleeve/shaft turns as a unit.

It might possibly have been a faulty fixing of the sleeves. If these were tack-welded back to the frame would the shafts still turn inside them? (that is, can you rotate the sleeve now whilst holding the shaft still?)

I think I'm just going to go ahead and replace this old beat-up thing. John Connolly (Aircooled.Net) doesn't have one -- I'm going to call Russ' Recycling.

I just hope this one is still viable -- a new one is $160 at RMMW!

They seem quite tough. I had mine apart for the first time in 28 years, and the brushes were OK. The outer bearing was almost dry, but a little grease put into the bearing cup (buried down the back of the motor can, which is why I had to take it right off and play with the brushes afterwards) with a thin screw driver fixed that (after twirling a rag inside the bearing (on the end of the same screwdriver) to clean out the traces of old grease. Only use a light grease though - don't want it slowing down the motor in freezing weather. :-)

That and regreasing the gearbox, was all I needed to do to it. The gearbox is a simple worm drive, the gears easily repacked with the same light GP grease. I didn't dismantle the gearbox output shaft since it felt free - just put a drop of engine oil where it comes out of the box to drive the wiper arm - a little will work it's way in with capilliary action. I used a thin smear of the same GP grease on the wiper arm pivots and shafts. Works very smoothly now.

It has been suggested to me that the easiest way to get the wiper motor out would be to cut the wires (to be respliced later). I would appreciate your thoughts on that, as I want to get that motor out first thing so I can tear into the fresh air box. Then I'm going to either take the motor apart myself and do as you have recommended, or take it to a shop and have it worked over.

If you need to cut the wires to get the wiper motor out, go ahead. It's easy enough to make a connection block up later to reconnect them.

It might be worth more than the motor to get it worked over by a shop. If you're not sure about stripping the motor itself and is still works with the repaired frame/shafts, I'd be inclined to just use it as is...save the shekels for another pressing job (or have you run out of those - hah hah)

I went out this morning and laid some heavy plastic over the open trunk, taped underneath the fresh air box. There are a lot of nooks and crannies down in there, and I want to keep it clean. I'm going to make a mess cleaning out the fresh air box.

It's kind of a strange situation. There's the rain deflector over the wiper motor, but it just deflects the rain down into the box. I haven't looked closely yet, but there doesn't seem to be any place for the water to go from there. And there is a considerable amount of rust in the box.

Mine has a 3/4 inch (or thereabouts) drain tube in the bottom which runs out through a slot in the floor of the luggage are just to the rear of the fuel tank. It has a plastic grill thing in the top which catches all the leaves and such, and a squirt with the hose clears the mud out of it (drains through the tube). I don't have the wiper motor to worry about of course -- separate on mine.

I'm going to start on wire brushing the inside of the fresh air box tonight. I'm tempted to remove the plate on the back of the wiper motor gear box that all of the wires are attached to, but I'm afraid of the hornet's nest I might open up. On the one hand, it might be a good way to detach the wires; on the other hand, not knowing just what's in there, it might be better to do it on the work bench rather than at the awkward angle it's in still attached.

If I remember right, there are some "wipe" contacts under there which park the wipers when it's switched off. I think they were firmly attached to the big gear wheel- I don't remember any pieces falling off when I took mine apart (to grease the gears). But cutting and splicing the wires might be easier I think.

I did cut the wires, I think it's going to work out just fine. I'm considering several methods of reconnection -- butt connectors, spade connectors -- and you mention a "connection block." Is this a device that you actually connect the two ends of the wire(s) to, and it provides the connection between them? Do you think this would be the best way to go? I thought I might go ahead and prepare the wire ends in the box for reconnection to the motor later.

What I had in my mind was the plastic 240v connector block we can buy here and I assume you'd have something similar there (110v or 220v of course). Here they are a strip of 10 two-ended connectors each with two set screws inset in the plastic and screwing down into the brass collar inside, so with each wire join you poke the wires into each side, screw up the screw on each wire, and you're done. You break off the block for the number of wires you wish to join. This kind of connector means you don't have to shorten the wires by twisting them together, and they make a "continuous" wire join - the ends just point at each other inside the connector for a straight-run join. Using a block of connectors makes for a neat join of several wires, and the plastic of the block means you don't need any extra insulation. They are light enough that they can just hang in the harness too - doesn’t need to be fixed. The only problem might be water if it's inside the air box near the wiper motor.

So long as they are rated at 10 amps or so the voltage doesn't matter.

The little electrical connection block I got in England sure worked well! Thank you for that suggestion! I've looked everywhere for those in the U.S. -- they're not to be had here.

It would be good experience for me. I really should at least have a look at it while it's laying on my workbench. Are replacement brushed readily available?

I don't know - my brushes were OK so I didn't need to look.

There is a hole about 3/4-inch in diameter in the back wall of the fresh air box, towards the bottom. I wondered about it and considered putting a rubber stopper in it -- I guess I shouldn't! That's got to be the drain hole -- there isn't any other.

Sounds like it. Is there any sort of hole in the floor of the luggage area which might be the exit point for the drain tube?

The worst that happens to these is the grease in the gearbox gets stiff with age.

And it tends to be left stuck to the outside -- not touching the gears any more. I though it prudent to use some General Purpose grease and pack a reasonable amount in (after scrapping out most of the old stiff stuff) so it should keep grease on the gears for a few years at least. I don't know whether the GP grease is similar to the stuff VW used, but I made sure it was NOT a lithium grease, (which is used in wheel bearings). If I remember right, the stuff I have is a 1 lb tin of Castrol LM.

Even if you decide against dismantling the gearbox and motor, you'd definitely need to repack (smear) the wiper arm bearings - they are plain bearings and need some lubrication. The outer end of the arm shafts are exposed to the weather, so no grease means more likelihood of water getting into the bearing.

Is there any way that you know of to "bench test" the wiper motor, just to make sure it runs well? I went to Speedy Jim's Web site and found a schematic and a write-up on wiper motors, but I'm not very good at reading schematics -- I need someone to hold my hand and walk through it with me.

I've had a look at Jims pic. Interesting circuit, and I think it's the same as mine (close enough anyway).

The simple test would be to connect 31 to negative (either at the brush or the cam switch connector), and either 53 (low speed) or 52b (high speed) to positive. It should run - I'm assuming it is just sitting on the bench).

The way it works is this -- it has a common brush which is earthed (bottom brush in Jim's pic). It has two other brushes rubbing the commutator in different places to give high/low speeds (some car builders just use two brushes and resistors to cut back from full speed). In the pic both switches (cam and wiper switch) are shown in park position, which literally shorts the motor on the earth line -- follow it around - 31 to 31b to 53 on the motor, through the motor and back to 31. Nifty -- stops the motor dead like an engine brake.

Up one click on the wiper switch (both contacts move together as indicates by the dotted line) and the 53a - 53 wire gets power via the upper switch segment and "park" is disabled (lower switch segment has a dead connector). The cam switch moves and turns 53a on, but it doesn't go anywhere because the lower switch segment (31b) is resting on the dead connector above "park". Move the switch to high and power goes to 53b at the top of the pic (the high speed brush) - the park switch and cam switch at 53a remain the same.

Turn the switch to park and the upper switch segment is disable as it moves to the dead "off" connector. Power still flows through the lower switch segment via 53a whilst the cam switch is still "up", continuing through the "park" connector to the low speed 53 brush. Then as the cam drops the cam switch to 31, it stalls the motor. This is the parking position again.

One of the first things I'm going to be doing once I have the car (and all it's pieces) back in hand is to reinstall the wiper motor.

Since Russ' Recyclingsent me a used wiper motor along with the wiper arm assembly, I'd like to test the two motors to see which is the better one. I have your wiring diagram from your windshield wiper page -- it looks like if I connect the black/yellow wire (53b) to the positive terminal on the battery and the brown ground wire (31) to the negative terminal the motor should run, and I should be able to get a feel for which is the better one.

Yes -- 12+ to 53b and 12- (earth) to 31 will give you high speed on the motor. 12+ to 53 and 12- to 31 will give you low speed.

If you can find a way of loading the motor (grabbing the operating arm etc) you'll get a better idea if one is working better than the other.

Have a look through the two slots in the motor casing for excessive sparking (worn brushes) and listen for dry bearings at the outer end of the motor case and the gearbox end. It would be worth taking the gearbox cover off and repacking it with light GP grease (NOT lithium wheel bearing grease) even if you decide not to dissasemble the motor section (it IS hard to get back together again). The grease needs to be a light grease, especially in your cold winters, or the wipers will be slowed more than they should be (and VW wipers aren't fast anyway).

I’ve still got a problem with the windshield wipers -- the one on the passenger side goes down onto the hood, and they stop in the wrong place, but I'm sure I'll be able to figure that out.

You should be able to pull the arms off the splines and rotate them a bit before putting back on the splines. They sometimes need a little levering to get off the spines (after removing the locking bolt).

On older bugs there is a locking bolt under the wiper arm, with an indent on the shaft, so they are not adjustable.

I'm sure the books have something to say about installing the wiper arms properly, but I haven't had time to look yet. I thought I was doing it right, but the right one goes down onto the hood instead of up onto the windshield, and the left one stops in an upright position rather than down where it's supposed to. I'm sure this is a simple problem.

On my '68 Bug, the arms sit on splined shafts, and it's a simple matter to undo the retaining bolt, pull the arms off and turn them before putting back on the spline. On the other one, they aren't adjustable - just a locking bolt under the arm which sits in an indent on the smooth shaft.

I discovered the problem with the windshield wipers -- the two drives that protrude through the body are stripped, and so are the wiper arms that attached to these drives -- shiny bright. Haven't yet figured out what to do about that problem (can I use older-style arms that screw onto the drives?).

Pity about the stripped shafts. I don't know if the older style arms would work - don't even know if they have the same diameter shafts. If they do fit, you'd need to drill an indent into the shafts so the locking bolt has something do grab on to.

And you only get one go to get it in the right position, so the wipers park nicely.

The pivot shafts have tiny splines on them (stripped on the old ones), but the hole in the wiper arm that slips over the pivot shaft is smooth. It's not real clear to me how the wiper arm stays in position on the shaft -- I suppose the 10mm nut that goes on the end of the shaft after the arm is installed needs to be tightened down very tight to keep the arm in the proper position on the shaft.

I worry about the wiper arm slipping on the shaft. I need to take a close look at the design to satisfy myself that the wiper is going to go up onto the windshield instead of down onto the hood, thus scratching the paint! Any thoughts?

Yes, that seems right. I think the nut on the outside tightens it all together.

I was thinking about this last night - I think there is a nut under the wiper arm which holds the arm mechanism in place and pushes the sealing washer on to the paintwork, then the shaft nut just holds the wiper arm on the shaft.

I bolted the newly-painted newly-lubricated new/used wiper arm assembly to the wiper motor, then slipped the pivot shafts up through the holes in the body and bolted everything into place. Then I turned the wiper switch on and watched the arm assembly go round and round and the pivot shafts go back and forth. Hooray!

I haven't put the arms on yet, because I'm having a little trouble figuring out how to get the wiper blades onto the arms. The instructions are a bit difficult to follow -- a series of pictures -- first you push the attachment point on the blade outward, then do something to it until it clicks, then slip the U-shaped end of the wiper arm over the attachment point and pull it back till it clicks. I'll try it again when I get home.

With the arms installed on the pivot shafts, you just pull the arms up off the screen, then you have to slip the "U" on the arm right through the centre slot on the head (actually moving the head, not the arm of course - it's attached to the shaft in my example) far enough that you can insert the catching piece in the centre of the head under the U in the arm, and when you rotate the head into the normal position, it can't come off.

I'm very leery about turning on the wipers for the first time after the new blades and arms are installed. I'm VERY protective of this new paint job. Is there a way I can test the wipers in such a way that the paint doesn't get scratched?

Just try it with the wiper arms lifted off the screen -- they'll stay there quite happily rotating in the air (if they are normal VW wiper arms...). That allows you to park the wiper motor, then put the blades down on the screen and adjust the arms on the splines if necessary. The arm sitting flatest to the bottom of the screen (left one I think) needs to be almost on the windscreen rubber. Then turn on the wipers and turn off the IGNITION at the "high point" (as near as you can get it) and make sure the OTHER wiper doesn't quite touch the right side of the screen with it's tip. That arm should then sit low on the screen too when you turn the wipers back to park. But it may be a little higher than the other blade. That gives the maximum sweep without either blade bumping the windscreen rubbers.

I discovered by difulgty with the wipers. The blade assemblies come with three adaptors -- one in the assembly and two others. The instructions are VERY cryptic and require careful study to be understood. I finally came to the realization that the adaptor (arm to blade assembly) that was in the blade assembly was the wrong one for the new arms; once I figured that out and changed it for one of the others that was provided, putting the arms and blade assemblies together was duck soup.

Unlike modern cars, VW didn't put a simple plug on the back of the steering column, so you have to feed what wires you can up the column as you pull the blinker mechanism upward, and of course you soon run out of free wires to do that. The only way of getting it right out is to disconnect all the ends from the fuse panel and pull them down into the car!