[Vwdiesel] Cold car and windshield wiper issues

[Tad]

It's been a while, but I recall having to replace the wiper mechanism on my
78 Rabbit gasser because they got so stiff that they would barely move.  Of
course knowing what I know now, I may have been able to just unfreeze/lube
them as Loren suggested.

On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 6:42 PM, Erik Lane <eriklane at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 5:24 PM,  <LBaird119 at aol.com> wrote:
> > In a message dated 11/25/2010 4:59:55 PM Pacific Standard Time,
> > eriklane at gmail.com writes:
> >
> >> Does anyone have any experience with anything like this? Also, does
> >> anyone have a digital copy of the wiring diagram for if I get a chance
> >> to get in there with a meter? I'd like it just in case there are
> >> problems with not getting the power to the motor, so that I can trace
> >> down where it's supposed to be coming from.
> >>
> >> This is a 1981 Jetta diesel.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >  You probably have two, mechanical issues going on here.  Firstly NEVER
> > run
> > A1 wipers if the blades are iced in place, it'll strip the insides of the
> > arm mounts.
>
> Yeah, point taken. I know better, but they had been fine and I didn't
> know they had gotten frozen until I hit the wiper switch. By then it
> was too late. :(
>
> > A2's are better but still not good.
> >  Pop the nut covers and remove the 10mm (socket size) nuts and washers,
> > then pop off your wiper arms.  Get some lube into the pivots, they get
> > stiff and
> > draggy all on their own so it's a good time to take 5 minutes and get
> some
> > Kroil,
> > PB Blaster, even WD-40 into them.  Then reinstall your arms (left and
> right
> > may
> > differ, they do on A2).  Get them pushed on well, put on the nuts and
> > washers
> > then tighten fairly snugly.
> >  Your problem was that the arms stuck, there are no splines in the arms
> > but
> > the tapered splines on the mounts bite into the arm and make their own
> > impression.
> > When the arms can't move, the splines strip and keep moving.  After so
> many
> > of
> > these episodes you must replace the arms.
> >     Loren
>
>
> Thanks for all of the advice!
>
> But I don't think that the splines slipped on the inside. Mainly
> because then once I had flipped the switch back to off they still kept
> trying to go until they had gotten back to their rest position. Since
> the contacts for where 'rest' is are inside the motor, if it were
> slipping it would stop at some point before that. And then once they
> stopped slipping they would have some crazy position for where they
> would want to stop.
>
> Unless I'm not understanding how they work as well as I think I do.
> Definitely possible, but I've had the whole system apart on different
> cars, so I thought I had at least the control side figured out fairly
> well.
>
> At any rate, I'll pull the nuts off and clean and lube as well as I
> can. I don't want to pull the motor out here in the cold, but I know
> that if I can get it in a halfway warm shop/garage it doesn't take too
> much to do it. Maybe I should just play it safe and plan to pull it
> unless I see super low voltage at the motor connector. I was really
> hoping something else obvious would jump out at someone else. Wishful
> thinking! :)
>
> Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and thanks!
> Erik
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