I inadvertently deleted the response to my question about wiper problems
but I think I can remember the basic complaints:
1. Too slow.
2. Motor doesn't seem to have enough torque.
The reason I asked was because I had a problem with my wipers that I was
able to fix (more or less). My problem was that the speed was fine but
the blades couldn't adequately clear the windshield. They just sort of
planed over the top of the water. This was no big deal when I lived in
LA but then I moved to the Washington DC area and needed better wipers. I
fiddled with them a lot; replacing the blades, lubricating everything,
but none of this helped much. New blades helped the most, at least for
a while, but as soon as they got a bit dirty (one good rain), it was
right back to crummy wipers again. After that I just cleaned them the
best I could and didn't bother replacing them until they really needed
to be. Actually, I put up with this problem until I was on my way back
to LA. I was driving through a particularly heavy downpour in
Massachusetts and I just got feed up with having to pull off the road
until the rain let up. It seemed to me that the basic problem was the
wimpy wiper arms. They were made of thin strips of spring steel and
just didn't provide enough blade force against the windshield. I pulled
into the next shopping center I came to and went into a discount store
(something like a Kmart) and bought a pair of new wiper arms. I had one
of my old ones with me so that I could see if the splines matched. They
seemed to and I bought what they had. Much to my amazement, they fit.
Anyway, these wiper arms were of the more typical cast design with a
spring for tension. This got me by but I still didn't like the fact
that the blades themselves were so small (not a concern when the wipers
didn't do much good, anyway). I got the bright I ideal of putting on
larger blades since there was plenty of room for them. That was a
mistake. The motor just didn't have enough torque for the bigger
blades, at least not for both at the same time. So I went back to the
smaller blades and am content to live with them.
My suggestion for both problems 1 & 2 above is to try smaller blades.
They require less motor torque and will probably allow the motor to run
a bit faster. BTW, as anyone who owns a VW bug probably knows, the
little springs in the wiper arms lose their tension after a while so
replacing either the springs or the entire arm assembly may also help.
Roland Dudley
cobra@hpcilan.hp.com
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