Thanks for taking the time writing that up. I need to look into mine again. It works fine right now, but I need to go in there and make sure it's not binding and has plenty of lube so that it stays in working order.
Charles
Charles
I can take a picture of it parked to give you a pretty good idea of were the balljoint pivot arm orientation should be when parked if that will help? On your rack, it should probably get the 200,000 mile service. :wink2: Pull it out, do the ball joint pivot service described by Pinino and then pop all the arm pivots off and grease, then pull the whole plastic housing off the motor (4 tabs) and clean the old grease out. Re-grease and bend the three contacts up a little bit to help them get better contact with the rings. You will see what I mean when you get in there. Do not install the rack fully into the car, but just rest it on the top of the false firewall and intake, plug it in and from the driver's seat watch how it is behaving. If good, then install the rack, turn it on again and let it park, them reinstall the wiper arms. 1 to 6 hours is all that it should take! :wink2:Thanks for all the wiper input. One of our arms broke, so I put a used replacement arm assembly from the APEman on the working motor, but screwed up the orientation of that eccentric cam. I have successfully popped the arm assembly off the motor, in situ, and put it back on, but I still don't have the thing positioned correctly. I need to go back to the broken arm assembly and play with it some more so I know exactly how the cam works, with the stop. I think in fact the assembly in the car is working a little backwards - it does a funny 3/4 sweep BEFORE it parks. I did remove the wipers and run the motor, then reattach the wipers, but I still didn't get it quite right. The wipers work, that's the important thing.
V
I have to agree. WD-40 is a water displacement lubricant. It will destroy these components since it is the wrong application. WD-40 is great for some things like squeeky hinges and spraying down engine on your seadoo after use but other than that it should not be used on plastic to metal, bearings, moving parts of any kind really. Hope that helps Danny.Danny, I beg to differ. Let's go point by point. First of all, WD 40 is NOT the lube to use, you must use a very specific lube that has a special formulation for plastic-to-metal parts, one that is not too drippy (and would dry out), one that is a real grease, and one that is good for low temperatures. Secondly, the ball joint MUST be removed and physically sanded to make it smaller. The problem is, with age the plastic expands slightly, causing the binding. WD 40 may work for a while but you are going to end up in worse shape eventually. Finally, the job is NOT difficult to do. Doing a timing belt or timing belt detensioner or strut replacement, or you name it, is much harder and unforgiving. I am not sure why you had problems reassembling the arm to the wiper motor spline in its correct position; if in doubt that you didn't put it in the right position, then, as a simple precaution remove the wiper arms before you turn the wipers on for the first time. If your theory about "factory presets" had any credence at all, we might as well sell all our Alfas, we'd be hopeless.