i was driving around today and the rain was coming down at a moderate rate and the wipers stop. the motor continues to run but the wipers are stopped. if i push up on the wiper itself they will go up and down, but they will not go back up unprovoked.
i have some experience with wiper motors, my '67 Beetle in-particular, i reached down there but it all feels as though its connected. Any ideas?
There is some possibility that the wiper arms have jumped their mounts, so you could first pull the arms and find out if their studs turn. But if the motor continues to run, but the wipers only move manually then the most likely possibility is that something came undone in the linkage. You’ll need to tear things down to get a better inspection than you can by just “reaching down there.”
it doesn’t help that its going to rain for 3 days, hahaha.
I was eyeballing the thing and i guess i have to take the arms off to get the black plastic grille off? then maybe a mirror to look behind it. Its in a parking lot at the moment and i will journey up there to take a look at it.
thanks!
It’s unlikely that both wipers came loose on their shafts at the same time. More likely a piece of the linkage from the motor to the wiper mechanism is broken or came apart.
Yep. the motor is connected to a plastic wheel which has gear threads on it. i bunch of the threads broke off. Now, i am looking at a new wiper motor. Thanks for all your help.