The steel cables that wrap around the wiper transmission have come off. Does anyone have a tricks or tips for getting these back on?

I tried for several hours unsuccesfully!
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1992 240GL, 1985 240DL Wagon, 1983 240DL

On the drivers side there is a small adjustment screw on the far end (IIRC) which loosens and tightens the tension. I learned about it from my mechanic after he spent 1 hour trying to reset them. Loosen, install, tighten. Good pluck.

One thing you could do is go to your local boneyard and pull the glovebox out and see how it's attached on that end and one with thee insturment cluster out and see how it goes over on that side. If you have a good digital camera, take some pics to remind you how it goes. Hope this helps. I'm sure it will happen to me one day and that's what I'll do.
Good luck.
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'86 sedan with 401,000 miles on the original engine and automatic transmission

man.. I feel your pain. I looked at those when mine came apart and drove the the Volvo shop.

What I will say though.. is that there's usually a reason they came off. In my case, it was one of the pulleys came loose from it's hub. Some cars (older I think) have plastic pulleys that can just break. If you have the plastic pulleys, replace them before you do anything. Whatever the case was, best address the cause of the problem before you get into that headache project further.. if you're lucky enough to get those cables back on, they'll likely just fall off again...

Good luck.. folks here have done it and should be able to help. I'm too much of a wimp to have done so myself...


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-Matt I ♥ my ♂

On my '83 DL last year I had the wiper cables jumped off the cams during a powerful rain storm.

On my wiper assembly, the cable had jumped off the groove in one of the cams. As there is a set operating cable tension, so I had to adjust the small screw at the end of the cable, realign the cable on each cam, then re-tighten the screw.

The wiper blades and arms are removed from the outside- a nut on each post-and then there are two 10mm screws on each wiper post that secure the posts on the inside of the vehicle compartment. The assembly is also attached to the wiper motor on the passenger side of the interior. There are also outside plastic part sleeves that need careful handling because they are old and brittle.

Removal of the old part is straightforward and the installation is opposite of removal. I had to pull the dash out about 12". So I had to remove the glove box, and then remove all the knobs, screws, etc and then disconnect the visible stuff inside all to pull the dash out to massage the working wiper assembly in and connect the parts. The dash just sat on the steering column-I did not need to pull the steering wheel off.

Perhaps your problem is just that your cable has jumped the cam groove and there are no broken assembly parts.

The most intimidating part of the whole job is pulling the dash.

So I pulled the dash, removed the assembly, fixed the cable, reinstalled the now working assembly, and before I could secure it with one screw, the whole thing slid to the right and fell out of the car to the ground! Cable came off the cam-but now I am a wiper pro, so I reconnected cable to cam and had an assistant hold the assembly so I could connect it with a nut. Be careful as a working assembly is delicate when it is not secured to the arms and wiper motor. I finally reconnected all the parts that I removed and in the end I found that I was even rewarded with a few screws; that is another story. Job took 3 hours, and I have been wiping away ever since!

Good luck,
Todd

Uh, I guess my previous post was not necessary as I assume you have removed your wiper assembly.

However on my unit the cable end has a screw that I loosened to get more play to the cable, then realigned the cable and re-tightened the screw to a good tight fit.

Todd