Windshield Wipers Not Working? Look In Here!
 

Well a few weeks ago I'm driving down the road and it starts to rain, no biggie, I flip on my wipers they make one pass and then nothing... GREAT!!! After dreading all the possibilities of electrical gremlins in switch's, wires, motors, ect I decided to start looking for the problem. So with the key on and the engine off I turned on the wipers. JOY!!! I could here the motor running and the arm sliding around under the cowl! This is gonna be a relatively easy fix!

The 1st gen Cummins is famous for these stupid little bushings wearing out and the arm that connects the wipers to the motor falling off because of it. The fix only takes about 30 min of your time, a few simple hand tools, and a $5 part from NAPA.

To gain access to the bushing you need to remove the cowl from the truck, this is pretty straight forward and starts with removal of the wiper arms. To take off the arms lift them off the windshield (like you are going to change the blades) and lift up on the little tab that holds them on the shaft.

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Next open your hood and you will see eight screws that holes the cowl to the firewall, remove them and then pop the front of the cowl up and pull it out from under the windshield

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Now you have access to the arms that control the movement of your wipers and the bushings that hold the together. There bushing I got from NAPA are part number 665-1537. They come two to a pack which is good seeing as how you need two, one on each end of the arm that connects the motor to the wiper assembly.

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Looking at the arm I could see the motor side looked fine but the wiper side was busted

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Remover the arm from the motor with a 7/16 wrench or socket and from the wiper side by prying with a screw driver. One of these should be broken though causing the wipers not to work, for me it was the wiper side, I just pryed what remained of the old bushing off with a flat head screwdriver.

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Here you can see the old worn out bushing on the left and the new one on the right

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Press you new bushings into the arm, there is a little tab that goes into a slot to line it up then bolt it up again and press it back into the arm for the wipers. Make sure it is in all the way! Push hard! Once it is on go ahead and turn you key on turn on the wipers and make sure it all works.

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Finally simply button it all back up by sliding the cowl under the windshield gasket (you may need to use a pick to hold teh gasket away), putting the screws back in, and putting for wipers back on! Now go drive in the rain!!!

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Nice write up, I'm sure that will help me in the future. With my luck, the near future...

i had the same problem on my 74. Definitely an easier fix if you have small hands

You said it!

yea...I coulda swore some jackass sharpened the openings on mine...sliced my hand something bad...I got a multipack at I think autozone...well two multi packs for ten dollars...replaced all of em...coulda swore there was 4

There is just two on the arm that connects the motor to the wiper, The other I could not see or get my fat ass hand to :D

i got lucky, i drove down to maysville kentucky one evening for a truck pull and we hit a horrible rain storm as soon as i crossed the river into kentucky, now im not talkin showers here people, im talkin pair'em up Noah one more time......wipers working great, coming home i hit a water puddle and turn them on to clear the windows, they make one pass and pop.....the same as bobby, now being the idiot i am, i just F it and i didnt fix them til we was at the county fair a couple weeks later and it rained and that sucked driving with no wipers, in the dark......i tried to fix them before i moved to florida but no one had the kits in stock, so i just put a small safety pin (the kind you put in a hitch pin) over the stud and it held great through a couple showers i hit driving down......too bad the IP went dead in NC......:argh:

I hate those things, every time I replace one another one breaks 5 minutes later

fix em all at the same time then jason :ph:

Good idea Phil, ya smart a$$ :ph: :c: