BearKiller

This is the "before" situation :

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...t-t282654.html


I found that O-Reilly's has the correct plastic bushings, DORMAN brand, ten identical bushings = enough to do two and a half trucks, for $9.49.

Dorman part # 118-301

We don't have an O-Reilly's, so our local Advance volunteered to price-match and got them for me the next day, saving me some over three-bucks as opposed to the regular Advance price.

I gentleman on another site pointed me in this direction :

http://www.clipsandfasteners.com/Win...r_p/a14858.htm

That is a box of 25 for just a dollar more.

I would have went that route, but I don't do any kind of funny-money and the shipping cost would have negated most of the savings anyway.


With bushings in hand, I embarked upon this project.

First, I removed the wiper arms/blades and layed them aside.

Next, with #2-Phillips screw-driver in hand, I removed the ten or so screws along the forward/bottom edge of the cowl.

I left the washer-hoses connected and just slid the cowl forward enough to be out of the way.

There are three short bolts that hold each of the "towers" that poke through the cowl, where the wiper-arms attach.

These were removed with a 7/16 six-point socket, 3-inch extension, and 1/4-drive ratchet.

With the six bolts out, I was able to fish the whole business out through the first long opening closest to the right fender.

It doesn't just jump out on it's own, quite a bit of wiggling and twisting is required to get it to cooperate.

Once out and in hand, I carried the entire linkage into the shop and onto the bench.

Now is a good time to engrave in one's memory just what goes where and on which side of each piece the open-end of the bushings go.

If your memory ain't too good, then maybe you should take some pictures.

I used one of those bent-tip screw-driver-looking prybars to pop the connections loose, THREE of them, not counting the one still out in the truck that popped itself loose and caused me to be doing this in the first place.

Although these bushings appeared to be good as new, they were brittle and broke like glass when I pried them out of their holes with a straight screw-driver blade; sooner than later, these would have also failed.

After wire-wheel brushing all the pivot-pins and the bushing holes, I sprayed a bit of silicone lubricant onto each new bushing and pressed it in.

To press the bushings in, I used a pair of Channel-locks.

I placed a 12-point 15MM socket under the linkage-arm as a pocket for the open-end of the bushing to have a place to go.

I put a flat piece of steel over the closed side of the bushing.

I squeezed this sandwich --- flat-steel, bushing, linkage,socket --- with the Channel-locks, until the bushing popped into place.

Once the bushing was in place, I drilled a 13/64 hole through the closed end of the bushing, both to give the grease and trapped air a place to vent, and as part of my preventive modification.

More to come.

BearKiller

I center-punched the end of each pivot-pin and drilled through the length with a 1/8 bit.

I packed each bushing with white-lithium grease.

Using the Channel-locks, I pressed each pin into it's respective bushing.

Be aware that one wiper-lever thingie is about a half-inch longer than the other; don't get them mixed up.

There is a plastic nubbin on the new bushings that protudes above the flat end; I clipped these flush with a side-cutter.

A 1/8 Cotter-pin was inserted through the hole I drilled through the pivot-pin and bushing, also going through a 1/8 fender-washer, before having it's "ears" folded over.

Hopefully, should the bushing fail again, this Cotter-pin and washer will prevent the linkage dropping loose and leaving me wiper-less.

More to come.

BearKiller

Back out to the truck :


Using Channel-locks to hold the little swinging arm on the wiper motor, and a 7/16 socket/ratchet, I removed the flange-washer/nut that holds it together.

The drive-spline is a rectanglular shaft with a mating hole in the arm.

A little wiggling broke free the rust and allowed me to take this arm in to the drill-press and drill it's pivot-pin as already described.

I pop this pin into it's respective bushing and insert the Cotter-pin, washer, etc.

With a needle attachment on the grease-gun, I tried to coax a bit of Kendall Super-Blu into the inside of the towers.

Back out to the truck:

I wiggle/jiggle the linkage back into the cowl.

I coat the six bolts with anti-sieze and re-attach the two "towers".

Be careful with the torque; these bolts are going into some sort of pot-metal that looks like it would break or strip easily.

I coat the motor shaft drive thingie with anti-sieze and replace the short arm and it's nut.


I noted that, on every Dodge truck around here, that little short arm is pointing toward the left fender when the wipers are OFF/PARKED, so I made sure my project turned out likewise.


Now I can re-mount the cowl-cover/razor-blade thingie.


The thin cover kept refusing to go under the windshield rubber, going under in one spot and riding over in another.


I lubricated the rubber with dish detergent and used a little 90* pick-thingie to work the rubber over the cowl.


Phillips screws were re-installed and the blades/arms were re-attached.


All is good once again.

TIMMY22

BearKiller

As I was referring back and forth to the wife's truck, making sure I was getting each piece in it's proper place, I noticed that the same bushing on her truck was completely gone, with the linkage just hanging onto the pin, waiting for the right time to fall apart.

So, the next working day I get will be spent addressing that situation.


It is easy to see this bushing by simply looking through the slots in the cowl.

My theory on why that particular bushing is usually the first to fail is it's un-protected location taking all the sun and weather, plus having the stress of both wipers.



I highly recommend replacing all four bushings on every truck at the soonest convenience, before they let you down a long way from home in a Kentucky monsoon.

farmer0_1

very nicely done. how many times growing up in oregon did i have a squeegee in hand cleaning off the window. lucky it was rain . had manual wipers on the old fifty jeep cj. glad your trip to grandmas house ended up safe.

Trooperthorn

My daughter recently bought a 1975 d100 shorted, her first purchased-by-her vehicle (daddy's so proud). Driving home the 200 miles in the rain the wipers were squeaking and clunking to drive you nuts. When I took it apart to investigate I found no plastic bushings at all in any of the locations. Instead somebody had cobbled of together using tie wire to hold washers on the ball pins. It never ceases to amaze me the lengths people will go to avoid fixing something properly. I replaced hers with a spare linkage I had.

It is good to know that the bushings are readily available and cheap. Nice work. Thanks, eric

BearKiller

I found the linkage just laying over the pivot-pin of the motor-arm, no trace of a bushing, just waiting for the first excuse to drop loose.

Being the second time doing this project, I added some new tricks.

As it would be very easy to forget just what went where and which side the bushings should poke through, before I pried everything apart, I took little squares of masking-tape and labeled each end of each piece.

I put an "R" and an "L" on the respective "towers".

The lever on the left side tower is about half-an-inch longer than that of the right.

I put an "R" or "L" at each end of the linkage pieces on whichever side of the piece that the closed end of the bushing should be and labeled the motor
end so that it did not get turned around.


I highly recommend that one should label all the ends and sides, as without another truck to referrence, it would be very easy to get lost and never get it back together again.

BearKiller

When I did the first truck, I made an attempt to squirt some grease into the insides of the towers using a needle on the grease-gun.

I may have gotten a molecule or two in there, but I have little confidence that I did.


The towers on this second truck had big dried-up globs of nasty black grease all around the levers and were rather sluggish when I tried to move them.


I had wished for some sort of Alemite on the towers of the first truck, so I decided to remedy the situation on this one.


On the under-side of the mounting-flange, and opposite the center bolt-hole, about 1/4" down on the body of the tower, located thus so that it would be shielded from any water, I drilled a 1/16" hole through the tower's housing, stopping as soon as the bit went through.


With the tower clamped in a vise, and the chain-saw-bar fitting in the grease-gun, I pumped good old Kendall Super-Blu into this hole, until it puked out around the lever.

Then, I used a C-clamp and the vise to squeeze upwards on the lever, thus preventing the grease exitting there, and pumped in more until it squirted out at the spline end.


Now that I have a means of doing so, I intend to remove and lubricate the towers every twenty years or so.

Trooperthorn

Old Darts had a habit of allowing water though the towers to drip on you feet when driving and on the carpet when you weren't. The shade tree fix for this was to drill and tap the side of the tower for a grease zerk, then keep the dumb things packed with boat trailer wheel bearing grease (nasty, sticky stuff).

I have been thinking about doing this, but I am not sure if there is room.

BearKiller

I intend to procur some extra linkages from some junk-yard trucks for experimental purposes.

One of my intentions is to disect a tower and see where I could best add an Alemite, maybe even one that is accessible without removing the cowl-cover.


On a similar note, I recently retrofitted a set of genuine big-truck wipers onto my 1985 Ford.

I had already discovered that the entire wiper arm/blade assembly was interchangeable with the 1st Gen. Dodges, same length of arm, same length of blade, exact same spline, and exact same blade-holder-thingie.

There is a minor difference in where the "kink" is located on the arms, but it's location is irrelevant in that the blade winds up in the same orientation.

I also found it curious that many auto-parts concerns offer replacement arms for the Ford, and not for the Dodge; thus, if one is seeking and cannot find new arms for their Dodge, simply ask for arms for a 1980-199? Ford.


The new pair of commercial-truck arms that I used came with a little bag of various new splines, making it evident to me that these are a replaceable item on big-trucks.

Later-model cars/trucks than our's are plagued with real cheapie splines that strip at the slightest excuse, rendering the entire assembly useless.

BearKiller

When I did the first truck, when I would get one side of the cover going in the right direction, when I went around to the other side, I would lose what I had gained.


On the second truck, I got the right side started underneath the windshield-seal, then partially installed the right-most screw to hold what ground I had gained.



Due to the overwhelming number of trucks, gas, diesel, and Ramchargers, that have had the wiper linkage come apart, I cannot believe the lack of a good TECH article on this repair/procedure to help us un-initiated ones.

I searched several Dodge related sites and found nary a one.

BearKiller

BUMP to the top for NJTman .....

NJTman

BK,

You're the best..... even though you work for Burger King....

Twitchy

BearKiller,

Where did you purchase the big truck wiper arms & what brand?

Thanks in advance,