Help! Wipers went bang

Alan Surrey

Alan Surrey

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1,030
mowlas said:
Very clever! I see an engineering mind at work here! One other thing to consider before you close everything back up is to feed the rubber seals and gaskets with something like this…


Has worked wonders on my door seals and surrounds, returning that quality ‘thunk’ sound when closing the doors.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the product recommendation Mowlas. So far, I have been using silicon grease to return some life and improve the feel of dry rubber seals and gaskets. It seems to work quite well, but I would certainly like to try a product designed for the job.
 
Alan Surrey

Alan Surrey

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1,030
Watching paint dry.
I have painted the wiper arms while they are off the car.
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Give or take a second coat of satin black, the smaller of the two is ready to go back on the car. :) I will use copper ease on the splines.
I used my palm sander on the alloy part to remove the blistered paint and get back to good metal. It worked well. A couple of coats of acid etch primer (which went on well) Then the satin black. I painted the big one too, even though I know I will have to take the palm sander to the alloy part of that one. I simply couldn't resist it while I had the paint out.

If you look closely at the big one, on the left in the photo, you'll see I have masked the splines with red masking tape. The splines are trouble enough without getting paint on them.
 
Alan Surrey

Alan Surrey

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1,030
Thank you for writing.
I'm positively glowing now Phil, with those fine words from one of the most respected automotive technicians in the Maserati sphere.
I'm under no illusions though. I have much to learn. But your guidance and encouragement, and that of the others, is much appreciated and has got me to this rather satisfactory point.
I has rained on and off today, so all Maserati mending has been halted because I have no workshop - just a garden table. But I will be back on the case once it is dry underfoot and overhead. :)
 
Alan Surrey

Alan Surrey

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1,030
Well, it turns out that, this evening, the weather has been good for repainting wiper arms.
I rubbed down the light alloy on the one I did not do last time, applied acid etch primer before it had time to hydroxidise, and then gave it a series of semi matt black coats. While I was about it, I inspected the other one carefully and decided to overpaint a couple of areas and rub down and repaint the part that had a run in it.
Now that it has all dried, it's looking pretty good. I'll inspect it all again tomorrow, but I'm hoping both arms will be ok to refit to the car :)
 
midlifecrisis

midlifecrisis

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16,320
Alan Surrey said:
Well, it turns out that, this evening, the weather has been good for repainting wiper arms.
I rubbed down the light alloy on the one I did not do last time, applied acid etch primer before it had time to hydroxidise, and then gave it a series of semi matt black coats. While I was about it, I inspected the other one carefully and decided to overpaint a couple of areas and rub down and repaint the part that had a run in it.
Now that it has all dried, it's looking pretty good. I'll inspect it all again tomorrow, but I'm hoping both arms will be ok to refit to the car :)
Click to expand...
The satisfaction of doing a good job well is immeasurable. Enjoy your celebratory cup of tea. In fact have a biscuit too. Well done.
 
Alan Surrey

Alan Surrey

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1,030
Champagne.
The wipers are now working. :)
Putting the wiper arms back on was a doddle compared with taking them off. I used copper ease on the splines and threads and I used silicon grease under the spring washer. I pressed down on the wiper arm at the joint between the alloy section and the steel section, per Zep's advice. Did it again as I hand tightened the nut - made a big difference. I got another 360 degrees or more. Nipped it tight as you would.
Here's a tip. Before you take the wipers off, stick a length of insulating tape on the windscreen alongside the wiper blade, so that you can replace it it the right position.
Another tip. If you don't do that, look carefully at the windscreen when you give it a quick wash before putting the arms back on. You can actually see the resting position that the blades used to have in the water droplet pattern on the windscreen. Stick your masking tape on that. A few drops of water did not prevent it from sticking.
With the windscreen as wet as I could get it with a car wash cloth, I ran the wipers for a cycle. Everything fine. The mechanism did not burst and the wiper blades stayed on the glass, probably wiping exactly the correct part of the screen. When they parked they aligned beautifully with the masking tape.
More champagne. :)
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103868

You probably won't see it in the photograph, but the wiper arms have a lovely uniform sheen to them after their repaint. No signs of bubbling anywhere on the alloy parts either.
 
A

alastairb

Member
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247
philw696 said:
Be careful to note the number of washers under each bolt holding the assembly in place so you can put it back the same.
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Soooo I might have put mine back on with Incorrect washers last weekend, doh! I now have an annoying streak which is not clearing on the drivers side halfway up the blade.

Think I'm 2 washers on the top middle bolt, one each on the bottom and outer top bolt.

Does anyone in the know have an idea how to tune the wiper blade engagement to the screen, are the washers for this purpose or to stop binding etc?
 
philw696

philw696

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25,744
There must be some technical information for this.
I wonder if Sportsitalia or Autoshield have it ?
 
Zep

Zep

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9,349
I would have thought that if a misalignment was lifting the blade it would be at the top or the bottom. More likely is an issue with the blade itself not flexing enough to contact the screen or the spring in a arm weakening to stop it pressing down enough to compress the blade. Have you changed anything else while removing the wiper mech?
 
Scaf

Scaf

Member
Messages
6,645
could the wiper are itself have been bent slightly ?
More’s the point, could it be bent slightly to improve the contact pressure on the screen ( that is how I got better results on one of my previosu classic cars)
 
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