The passenger side windshield wiper started getting out of synch with the driver side wiper. It seems to happen at the part of the wiper arm stroke furthest from the parked position. On occaision it jams at that furthest position and the smell of the wiper motor burning itself up can be detected. If the arms are gently realigned back in the parked position, the wipers work fine for 30 or more cycles before things get jammed again.

Tightening the post nuts helped some but did not eliminate the jamming. The linages between motor and posts all seem to be solid inside. I wanted to check the wiper arm to post connection but there was no visible means of removing the wiper arm from the post. The manual just says to remove them. For some reason prying them off didn't seem to be the proper reomoval technique.

Any clues as to how to get the wiper arms off without damage or what might cause them to get out of synch are appreciated.

Joe in WV

This has to be the rare case when you do pry the part off. I have the same problem with the left wiper. I got a lot of good feedback on this topic. Look at the Feb. 2004 postings. The title is "wiper travel" Hope it helps.
DC

Joe;

I'm not sure what you mean by "post-nuts" (other than the breakfast cereal)...the wiper arms themselves just press onto the posts on 122 and 1800s...I believe the 544 are similar. Following shows a pic of what I did when the lead post to arm connection got loose on mine.


I believe from your description that there is a problem within the gearboxes at the end of that post...if it intermittently jams up, it sounds like there may be a tooth (or teeth) broken off and jamming the works occasionally...if that's the case, there's not much which can be done to repair...replacement is probably the only answer.

(BTW, I'm still waiting on brake light brackets, but it shouldn't be too much longer now...)

Cheers

Post nuts = wiper arm shaft nuts. There is one on the outside and one on the inside sandwiching rubber bushings on either side of the cowl. It is kind of like a miniature shock absorber mount.

Here is another picture of the wiper motor and linkages.

Ron:

I will first try to tighten up from the underside per Dennis' thread. If it is a gear, then the whole assembly must come out -- ouch. There are no gears in the 544 wiper system other than those inside the motor. Everything works by offset linkages. The gear theory still seems to make sense since the problem is intermittant and not electrical.

I hope you solve this because, although I got some good responses in Feb. I still have wipers that travels too far. I have not been able to find new gears for the wiper motor anywhere and I won't remove the motor until then. They might travel pretty far but they still work. If you have any luck, let me know.
Cheers,
Dennis

Dennis:

I am back to thinking that this is a linkage problem. The gears should not control the legnth of the arc that the wipers eventually travel through. If the gears were actually slipping, then an wipers would travel through an arc of the same length but the arc would rotate about the wiper shaft. My wipers traveled too far in both directions before they started jamming.

Although the shaft nuts were tightened and the linkages were checked for looseness, the entire mechanism was not observed while operating. When time allows I will wet the windshield with a garden hose and take a look under the dash with the wipers on. If the cause of slop isn't obvious, then the whole mechanism is coming out for closer inspection.

Note to self -- add a small bottle of Rain-X to the list of things needed before going on a long trip in a 40 year old vehicle. My kid calls the car "Fear Factor". Did your parents regularly drive a 1923 whatever at 70 MPH?

Best regards,

Joe M