Maintenance of your wipers

B

Boatdreamer

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 15, 2012
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266
Fluid Motion Model
C-28
Non-Fluid Motion Model
17 Keywest
Vessel Name
Gratitude
I just made what should have been a quick and easy project into a nightmare project. For those of you that take your windshield wipers for granted like I did for the past eight years, DON’T! I needed to replace the arms and blades because of corrosion and salt buildup. I remember Mike Rizzo posting and telling everyone to remove the plastic covers where the arms attach to the motor shaft, but I didn’t and boy did they hold the saltwater. I had to cut all four arms off the motor shaft being careful not to damage the brass shaft or slip and cut anything else by accident. If your boat has the plastic covers I would remove them and throw them away. Make sure you keep the arms clean and spray them with some anti-corrosion a couple time a year. This simple practice with save you time and frustration when you need to change them and in my case possibly a new wiper motor.

Tim
Gratitude
 
are you talking where the u joint of the arm attaches the wiper to the arm?

mine get rained on and are hosed off with fresh water. no problem pulling these off to put new Bosch icons on after 4 years?

what plastic bits are you referring to? got a picture?
 
The plastic caps are on the arm knuckle where it slides over the motor shaft. I would hope the newer Tugs have a different design because if you leave the caps on, they’ll hold water and corrode the knuckle. That’s what happened to me and I had to cut the arms away from the motor shaft. Lesson learned!

Tim
Gratitude
 
I removed the plastic caps a couple of years ago. The wipers make better contact with the glass as they are more flexible not being caked with salt.
 
My wiper arm knuckles were completely crudded up, wipers weren't even making contact. I just replaced all my wiper arms with new Marinco arms I found on Amazon. They appear to be exactly what the factory installed, although maybe with slightly stronger springs. I like the idea of removing the plastic caps. That way I can give them an occasional wash down with Salt-Away and hopefully they'll last longer.

By the way, this doodad makes easy work of pulling the arms off the shafts:
61EE-PHnwAL._AC_UY218_.jpg
 
I used the same tool last month to get one off our boat (and some penetrating oil). Only problem was that I had to made a same peg to go into the hole so that I could make contact with the motor shaft.
 
I removed plastic caps, and wash then lube arms. Will fill with salt and not keep pressure on glass.
 
Hi Boatdreamer, What did you use to cut your wiper arms off the motor shafts? I'm faced with the same issue, can't get the wiper arms off, even with a liberal application of PB Blaster and use of the spiffy gizmo mentioned in this post. On the one wiper I've been attempting to get off, I had to drill out the set screw in the hope it would allow the arm to come off it's corroded on solidly. I even tried a bit of heat to see if that would break the bond - no joy. Carefully cutting is next.
 
Hi Brian, I did everything you did but it still didn’t move. Now I was off to Harbor Freight to see what I could come up with. I ended up buying a $20 oscillating multi-tool and blade that would cut aluminum. Being super careful I made a cut on each side where the wiper attaches to the motor spline trying not to go too deep. Then I took a small chisel to the spot I just cut and tapped it with a hammer to break it apart. I did all four this way in about 20 minutes. The wiper arm is pretty thick so I went really slow on the first one because I didn’t want to hit the motor shaft. Good luck.

Tim
Gratitude
 
Trisailor":25e8hyio said:
Hi Boatdreamer, What did you use to cut your wiper arms off the motor shafts? I'm faced with the same issue, can't get the wiper arms off, even with a liberal application of PB Blaster and use of the spiffy gizmo mentioned in this post. On the one wiper I've been attempting to get off, I had to drill out the set screw in the hope it would allow the arm to come off it's corroded on solidly. I even tried a bit of heat to see if that would break the bond - no joy. Carefully cutting is next.
Click to expand...

Implied, but not mentioned. There is a set screw that needs to be either removed or loosened to get the arm off the spindle. When reinstalling new or old arms I suggest that you use a coating of anti-seize on the shaft. Also, my periodic maintenance includes removing the arm once a year, cleaning it and re-coating it.
 
Hi Mike, when they get as corroded as mine were the set-screw just gets rounded off when you try to loosen it, that’s the other reason I decided to just cut them off. One more item to add to the yearly check list.

Tim
Gratitude
 
I don't know if there is a difference, but there were 2 set screws on my wiper arm, about 90 degrees off set from each other, when I swapped out a motor last month. Also, a Dremel with a cut off wheel will do the job, if need be. It's not hard metal; use the wheel with the fiber in it. The small, thin ones will break too easily.
 
Thanks Tim. You used the technique I was thinking of. I already have the oscillating tool, just need a new blade. I may also try the dremel tool as mentioned by ohioan55.
Mike thanks. I actually had to drill out the set screw on the one arm I've been experimenting with as the set screw just rounded out and wouldn't budge. Like Tim, I've been trying to finesse and sweet talk the arm off the shaft, but too many years of neglect with the plastic caps on the arm knuckles (which I removed immediately on purchasing the boat) have "welded" the arms to the shaft. Fortunately here we don't have a need for the wipers too often.
 
I don't know if anyone here has an answer, but when I replaced the motor last month, I noticed that there were 3 wires connected to the motor. Now if I had a 2 speed control for the wipers, that would make sense. But, I only have one speed (fast). I have looked to see if there was a control to slow them down (low speed), but can't seem to find anything. The switches appear to be on or off. Just a side question on this wiper thread.
 
The third wire to the wiper motor is power for the parking process. When you switch off the wipers using the panel (dash switch) the motor still needs power to sweep the blade to the park position.
 
My 2019 R29 does have a three way rocker switch for the wipers. Mid position is off and up and down are high and low speed.
 
Thanks, and I hadn't thought of that. As for wiper speed, I'll check again in a few minutes, but I believe our switches only have one position.
 
The 1 speed wipers are 3 wire and the 2 speed wipers are 4 wire. In both cases the park wire on the tug side of the circuit is blue.
 
Since mine are only 3 wire, that explains why there is only one speed (I checked again today). Thanks for the info.
 
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