Over-enthusiastic wipers

Dragonslayer · Feb 7, 2010

'93 XJ. When the wipers are parked they're OK. Blades are parallel to the bottom edge of
the windshield, about 1/2" from the rubber. However, when I turn on the wipers - the
driver's side wiper will sweep so far that the top 1/3 of the wiper will go beyond the edge
of the windshield and scratch the windshield trim and whack the A-pillar. Is there a way
to adjust the sweep travel of the blades? I know on some other cars you can take the
wiper motor gears apart and move some pins around to do this. Is this possible to do on
an XJ? Thanks all.

old_man · Feb 7, 2010

Pull the whole wiper arm off and reset it to the correct angle.

wolfpackjeeper · Feb 7, 2010

Sometimes it is caused by slop in the plastic pieces on the assembly under the cowl. I think Advance has the kit with the right pieces for about $15, it is a universal kit on the help aisle. It is a bit of a pain to do though.

Pelican · Feb 7, 2010

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=84377&highlight=wiper+bushings

About $6 and no more than an hour total on my '93. Considering the time and money involved, getting rid of the slop in the wipers was one of the best projects I've ever done for the old xj.

wolfpackjeeper · Feb 7, 2010

yea, I knew they weren't much. I bought mine a long time ago. I need to redo this project on My MJ. Does anyone happen to know if the new model wiper blades will fit on the older jeeps, or are the splines different. I want to switch to the new style to get away from those god awful pins on the old style.

Hellbent · Feb 8, 2010

they should. i put '99 or '00 xj wiper arms on my old '87 xj with no issue. did the same to my '96. i like the angle of the later model arms better, they sit "flatter".

VAhasnoWAVES · Feb 8, 2010

are your wiper blades the right length? lol, sounds dumb i know. but ive seen it.

Hellbent · Feb 8, 2010

good point, they should be 18"-i believe.

Dragonslayer · Feb 9, 2010

Thanks for the replies. The wiper blades are 18" in length. I tried lifting and wiggling the
wiper arms to see if I could feel any slop in the mechanism. It all seems tight and OK.
In any case, if there were some slop in the works I would think it would diminish the
arc of travel of the blades (which is what I want). When parked, the blades are about
1/2" above the bottom edge of the windshield. If I position the arms lower, then the
blades hit the bottom edge of the windshield as they wipe.

wolfpackjeeper · Feb 9, 2010

actually any slop tends to extend the travel of the blades, not reduce it.

Dragonslayer · Feb 11, 2010

I can't think of any other reason for the increase in wiper arm travel except for
what was stated here. It looks like I'll be-a-changin' the wiper bushings when
the weather lets up. Thanks all for the info!

joe_peters · Feb 11, 2010

Anyone here as annal-retentive as I am? Good!

Per 90 FSM, the passenger side wiper arm should be installed so the wiper, at the point of the wiper arm attachment, is 33~62 mm above the top edge of the windshield/cowl seal. The driver side should be 23~52 mm.

Now, don't you feel better?

Over-enthusiastic wipers

Dragonslayer

NAXJA Forum User

old_man

NAXJA Forum User

wolfpackjeeper

NAXJA Forum User

Pelican

NAXJA Member #1191

wolfpackjeeper

NAXJA Forum User

Hellbent

NAXJA Forum User

VAhasnoWAVES

NAXJA Forum User

Hellbent

NAXJA Forum User

Dragonslayer

NAXJA Forum User

wolfpackjeeper

NAXJA Forum User

Dragonslayer

NAXJA Forum User

joe_peters

NAXJA Forum User

Similar threads