Windshield Wiper ?s

Howdy Y'all

I've noticed over the past few days that my windshield wipers have started to make a rather pronounced thunking noise when they are reaching the end of their sweep. What could this be. I'm thinking it is the wiper moters going south on me, but I really have no idea. The noise doesn' really bother me, but I'd rather not loose my wipers in the middle of a rain storm. Thanls for any help.

Are they making this sound because the wiper is hitting the bottom of the windshield? If this is the case you may need to remove the wiper arm and move it up a little. If this doesn't work looks like you need to replace your wiper linkage bushings. Not too hard of a job about an hour. You'll need the HELP! brand p/n 49455 (If this is wrong somebody else chime in) Youll need to remove the linkage assy and R2 the bushings. I used a battery terminal puller to remove mine and some sockets to install them. Be carefull, you can break the new bushings easily or break the linkage. HTH

RaiderXJ

help part number 49445 napa also makes an equivalent. Bout the same price.

Price varies. My Auto Zone gets $4.99 for the bushing kit. Directly across the street, Pep Boys wants $9.99 for the exact same part.

Thanks guys. It's not hitting the windshield, so it must be the bushings. Cheap enough to do it and not worry about it.

Another possibility is that one of the bolts that hold the motor to the linkages backed out a bit and it is hitting them as they go around.

Thunking noise isn't good. if you see the cowl vent moving in sync with the noise then the mounting has come loose, if you let it go then the weld holding the moter to the upper cross bar of the linkage may break as I experienced. there was a related post titled Wiper arm bushings a couple of pages back.

From a post I placed a few days ago:

tom from boston
Jeeper

Registered: Mar 2003
Location: Arlington, MA 02474
Posts: 22
Replacing the bushings is really pretty easy. The hardest part for me was finding the darn HELP! kit. Let me see how much of this I can remember.

0. remove the negative battery terminal - just to be safe.
1. Pull off the wiper arms
2. Remove the body panel thing that's over the motor and linkage. It's four or so screws on each side as I recall.
3. Pop the hood and remove the screws that hold the linkage / motor in. They are along the back firewall of the engine compartment in the top middle.
4. Unplug the motor.
5. Push the nubs down that the wiper arms attach too and wrestle the whole bastard out. Pay attention to how it goes in, lest you forget when you have to put it back in...
6. Get the 3 bushings you'll need out of the help package and remove and replace the bushings one at a time, taking care not to mix up the way all the parts fit together. Trust me on this, I wasn't quite paying attention and almost screwed up how they all go back together. A little grease will help the bushing slide back in and rotate freely.
7. Wrestle that whole assembly back in - the biggest pain in the but of the whole job.
8. Re-attach the assembly to the firewall, and the plug to the motor and the negative battery terminal.
9. Put the cover back on, reattach your wipers, wet the windshield and try them out!
10. Pat yourself on the back and wonder why you didn't do this easy job much, much sooner.

-Tom


__________________
Project Col. Steve Austin
1994 Cherokee Sport
4.0/231/AW-4
160K and counting
GDI 3-Core - new gas tank, fuel pump, soft lines, and strainer - MacGyvered NSS - fresh hubs, front rotors and pads - fresh CPS (wish I'd found before I agreed to pay for that one) - Optima RedTop - a nice stereo to drown out the exhaust leak - rear quater panel & liftgate damage and plenty of rust and a REALLY, REALLY long list of "to-do's"

I just did this this afternoon in my '92. It was a piece of cake.

The kit was $4.99 at Autozone. I used the three white bushings.
The one thing the instructions above didn't mention is that the linkage is also attached to the body by four torx screws at the wiper shafts. I didn't have the correct size driver so a pair of vice grips worked nicely, as these screw into plastic. Also, I used a bench vice to press the new bushings onto the joint ball.

Total time elapsed, including painting my wiper arms, about 45 minutes.

Lee in St. Louis

Jeesh, I've been listening to that thunk for years...even put a dent in the windshield trim. It's really that easy?! No excuses now.

Wel, I yanked everything apart yesterday. The bushings were rock solid, no play at all. I couln't find what was making the noise, so I just cranked every thing back down and put it back together. Aparently I fixed whatever was wrong, because it sounds right now. Thanks for all the help guys. Now I'll at least know what to do in the future when this problem comes bak.