Stripped windshield wiper arm repair

[zmuff]

Five days ago my drivers side (L/H) wiper quit working in a hard rain on highway late at night... what better time? The splines inside the arm had stripped out. I was unable to find one from a wrecker and the local stealer didn't have one. I decided to attempt a repair. I had read in some other message board archives that new arms did not have splines in them, they were smooth and the wiper shaft sticking up cut new ones. It looked to me that if the inside of the arm was made smooth again and the gap on the end of the wiper arm was opened up, it may work.


Here's what it looked like when I pulled the arm off. Notice there is almost no gap on the end of the arm. It appears as if the wiper arm was not seated as far down on the shaft as it should have been. I'll never know how long it was like that. I guess the wipers on high speed the other night was all it could take. That last 15 miles sure did suck!

http://members.cox.net/zmuff/Wiper%20arm%20before5.2.jpg


Here's what it looked like after spending a lot of time with a set of jewelers files. I smoothed out the the splines in the hole and opened up the end gap so the bolt could close things up tight and let it cut new splines. I've got about three hours of use so far and it appears that all is well. Hopefully this will help out someone else in a tight spot that has the same style wiper arm.

http://members.cox.net/zmuff/Wiper%20arm%20after2.2.jpg

[632 Regal]

LOL...you should have filed the place that was butting together, now when you put it on it will be even looser. File the butt joints and put it on all the way you should be fine.

[liquidtiger720]

you can pursue this mod.
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=277888&highlight=dtm+wiper+blade

[JonE]

Hey Jeff,
Didn't he do what you said? "and opened up the end gap so the bolt could close things up tight and let it cut new splines". And he has 3 hours of use, so far!
Pretty good job, I'd say!

[632 Regal]

where he said he opened up the gap. I assumed he just pried it open until I just re read and took a double take on the pics.

Looks like a pretty tedious operation. I dont have the patience for that, I would have probably used a die grinder and cut my fingers off.


Hey Jeff,
Didn't he do what you said? "and opened up the end gap so the bolt could close things up tight and let it cut new splines". And he has 3 hours of use, so far!
Pretty good job, I'd say!

[zmuff]

Tedious is a very good word to use. I thought about using my ball grinder to take out the splines but that thing removes material very fast (or chunks out of fingers). Making the end gap wider is what took the most time. Part of it was done with a hacksaw blade, but I had to file out the rest. I was just very motivated, it's been raining a bunch lately. I was using Rain-X in the meantime... I forgot how good that stuff was!

[632 Regal]

Tedious is a very good word to use. I thought about using my ball grinder to take out the splines but that thing removes material very fast (or chunks out of fingers). Making the end gap wider is what took the most time. Part of it was done with a hacksaw blade, but I had to file out the rest. I was just very motivated, it's been raining a bunch lately. I was using Rain-X in the meantime... I forgot how good that stuff was!

[infinity5]

i was wondering the exact same thing.....

[zmuff]

Nope, not mine! I just babysit it and a few others just like it. It does do cool stuff though:

http://www.flightint.com/images/Lear-Stores.jpg