Driver's side wiper broken

[mcneon]

Okay, let's try that attachment thing again!

[mcneon]

Okay, I hope third time's the charm. That was a Lumina apv with the wipers in question. This should be the GMC with them mounted.

[mcneon]

Somehow my original post got lost, so here it is:

Malski said in another thread:
"The windshield wipers were the only thing that seemed dated. "

I don't know whether he's talking about the motion or the look, but the cosmetics may be something we can improve.

I monitor the GMC motorhome digest (very active, some crossover to my Argosy). Their hot setup lately is to use Chevy Lumina apv driver's side wipers on their coaches. This is the '90's van that looks like a Dustbuster and has a huge windshield.

I'm pretty sure at least the Argosies use the same wiper arms as the GMC's did, and I'm going to get some of these Lumina arms and try them soon. There's some reaming of the mounting hole required, but that shouldn't be too hard. I'll keep you posted.

The picture below is a GMC with the Lumina arms installed.


Bob McKeown
Nashville

[mwendell]

let us know how this goes, sounds like a good upgrade and would make it easier to find refills.

m.

[DaveJ]

Hi,

Does anybody know where to buy these little things for the wiper washer system?

This one has a broken-off tube attachment on the rear side.

Thanks.
Dave

[DaveJ]

Here's a closer look.

[74Argosy24MH]

Try Cleveland Ignition. They are real good on wipers.

John

[90345]

I really like the upgrade idea. The overall coverage of the windshield looks much greater and the arms appear to "park" low and parallel with the bottom edge of the glass.
Having recenctly driven through hours of rain to and from Kansas - I was already wondering what sort of improvements could be made to my wipers.
Has anyone completed this upgrade on an Airstream Classic M/H ?
I shudder to stray from the original design / equipment - but the improved vision [ from both in and out of the coach ] is tempting.

This forum is the greatest !

David

[wb13798]

try NAPA they have replacement wipers wipers in stock. not cheap but who is going to cry. they are not marked up like the rv dealers do.

[mcneon]

Okay, after sitting on my good intentions for a few months, I finally ordered some of these arms for my Argosy. I kept intending to go look for some used ones, but that hasn't happened.

Found the right ones (I hope) at Rock Auto - www.rockauto.com.
They're Motormite part number 42710, $18.09 each. That's the best price I found anywhere on the internet by a wide margin. I suspect they wouldn't be a lot cheaper at the junkyard.

I'll report back once I've gotten them and tried them out.

Bob McKeown
Nashville

[mcneon]

I'm back to sitting on the sidelines again. Rock Auto called today to say that the wipers are on factory backorder. Oh, well, I have plenty of other projects to keep me busy!

Bob McKeown
Nashville

[Astrodokk]

Apparently, the rod that connects the wiper arm through the body to the wiper motor just underneath the body panel has separated. My mechanic says the tiny pin that attaches it to the crank device sheared off. He ordered a new one.

My question is, should I replace with original stuff or use upgrade as I've read in other posts, such as Chevy Lumina arms/motor.

Also read about putting the arms in sync with each other. I wonder if that's hard to do?

[87MH]

Astrodokk:

The wipers on the '87 are independent motors. They sync up on the intermittent setting 'cause the start signal is sent to both at the same time.

Where did you read about putting the arms in synchronous motion?

I may well be mistaken, but I interpretted the post on the Lumina wipers to be the arm replacement only, and not the wiper drive.

Please let me know what you find out, as the swept portion of the driver's window leaves a lot to be desired with the stock wiper system.

[Astrodokk]

Do you have to put them both in the intermittent setting to have them automatically sync? I don't think I have intermittent in my '81. Just on/off. The mechanic said that even the newer RV's still have independemt wipers, although I don't know why not have both going at the same time!

The sync post I found when I searched "windshield wipers". I'll look for it again.

Edit: It's in the 1992 350 LE thread on wipers. The posted reply was from Bubbla.

[74Argosy24MH]

Please let me know what you find out, as the swept portion of the driver's window leaves a lot to be desired with the stock wiper system

The sweep is adjustable. Go to Cleveland Ignition and click on 'information on parts'. It will bring up a drawing, the arm on the shaft that goes through the body has 3 locations for mounting the pin.

John

[87MH]

Interesting to know of the adjustment for the sweep.

The intermittant switch should not be much of a hassel. I would suspect it would not be difficult to install. The intermittant switch offers a slight delay, that allows both of the arms to momentarily stop in the rest position, then restarts both at the same time for the next cycle, a single sweep.

I know a few years ago you could purchase an intermittant kit from J.C Whitney.

[74Argosy24MH]

Too much blade (drag) and too wide across the front to run both wipers off the same motor and linkage. It would either have to be very heavy or flex like crazy.

When these were made intermittent was only a different switch and an add on box. You can also get it from Cleveland igniton, I think it was about $25 when I did mine.

John

[mcneon]

The Lumina wiper upgrade is for the wiper arms only. I think the wiper to wiper spacing on the Lumina is closer than on a motorhome, so the motor and linkage probably wouldn't work.

I'm back on track for the upgrade. My reordered wipers from Rock Auto are due here on Monday. I'll take photos and post when done. Any news on when the photo site will be back up?

Bob McKeown
Nashville

[mcneon]

My wiper conversion is complete, and I'm very happy with the result. Following is a summary of what I did. I've posted pictures of some details on my photo site.

I bought my wiper arms from Rock Auto (www.rockauto.com). They're Motormite brand, part #42710, and the cost is $18.09 each. As supplied, the arms don't have any washer nozzles. These are GM part #22121436 and gmpartsdirect (www.gmpartsdirect.com) sells them for $9.21 each (nozzle assembly for one arm).

I used a giant tapered reamer and did a lot of Dremeling to get my arms to mount up, but there's a much better way. A 3/4" Unibit (center one in my photo) is apparently a near-perfect taper and makes the hole reaming and tapering process a snap. Be aware that there are probably twenty different styles and sizes of Unibit. I'd recommend that you take one of your wiper arm cones with you to Harbor Freight and buy the Unibit whose taper best matches the cone.

Once you've reamed the hole to the correct size (don't ream too deep!), line a vise with several layers of masking tape and squeeze the cone into the wiper arm to form serrations in the arm. You may want to do some trial fitting first to position the arm properly on the cone. A few washers or a spacer will then take up the extra stud length and let the retaining nuts hold the arms tight.

The wipers are a standard style (Bosch Micro Edge Excel part # 40920) that mounts to a pin on the wiper arm. My '74 Argosy used 20" blades, about 2" longer than original. I think all motorhomes will use this size.

I've tried adjusting my linkage (see John's Cleveland Ignition link), but I think the original setting is probably best. With just one additional "notch" of adjustment, the driver's side wiper goes too far around the corner of the windshield and puts a lot of extra load on the motor.

Total cost was about $100 including shipping the arms and nozzles from two different sources. (You could definitely get by cheaper and do just as nice a job with junkyard parts, but I didn't have time to search for them.) All in all, it's a nice looking upgrade and should be easy to maintain with modern parts sources over the years.

I'm sure there are better ways of doing some parts of this process. I look forward to hearing about them as other folks do this conversion.

Bob McKeown
Nashville

[swebster]

This looks like it could be a great upgrade. Please post the after pics of your installation!

I too have driven too many miles in rain or snow wondering why the passenger side is perfectly clear but the driver's side has a big messy hole in the middle of the sweep.