Wiper Stroke

[ydeardorff]

Today thanks to Unofun, I was able to get my wiper assembly mostly installed.

Now of course all those little things you notice when having a car in front of you, that dreaming of one cant offer. Found themselves popping up in my face. Nothing of course any used car wouldnt toss at you though.

I heard many times about people not caring for the stroke of the wiper. Either it not reaching high enough, or not going far enough to the left or the right, or both.

Well, after getting the assembly for the most part functioning, I noticed the same thing.

I laid on my back and took note of the arm that comes directly off of the motor actuating the entire linkage.
Now if this pivot point could be extended by making a new arm, with the bolt center point an 1/8, to 1/4 inch further out, (there is plenty of room to fit in there) and by increasing the motor arm length, the stroke of the wiper will be increased. This should in effect make the sweep go completely from window edge to window edge. Once the exact length is figured out.

Ill make some arms at work, using some scrap steel, and make various lengths, when I find one that works Ill post it up here.

It wont fix the height issue, but should very effectively fix the short stroke.

 

[farfegnubbin]

Yep, by adjusting the length of the arms and/or the pivot points, you should be able to fine tune the sweep geometry in a bunch of good ways.

The problem I notice (like you're talking about) is that there is a significant amount of the LOWER portion of the windshield that gets missed. Also as you were implying, it's not a problem with the length of the blades so much as the arch of the sweep. You can't really make the blades much longer or they'll either be off the bottom of the windshield (at the end of the sweep) or off the top of the windshield at the top of the sweep.

Here's a photo showing the basic arc. You wouldn't think that the area being missed would make much of a difference -- it just looks like a little area at the bottom of the window -- until you sit in the car. The second photo is from inside the car while driving and it shows the area of my windshield that doesn't get directly cleared by the wiper. There is some important info coming from that region of the windshield...like the entire road in front of me!

​

In a way, it's not that big of a deal because I seldom am out in rain, and even then it's usually light rain, and even then some of it gets blown off 'cause of the rake of the windshield. But still, I'd love to find a way to clear that area. I've considered attaching a very minimal second blade a little lower and more to the center of the primary blade, still hung off the existing arms of course. I'm pretty sure this would clear the area, BUT it would be yet another thing to look around.

Really not that big of an issue in the grand scheme of things, I suppose.

But while we're talking...another thing I don't like about my wiper arms is that they flap a lot. The arms on mine Sterling wipers are made from a flat stock material (as opposed to a rounded tube.) I assume most of us have flat arms like mine. On the truck/bus they were borrowed from, this might not have mattered as much because the windshield was more upright and the weight the arms were carried downward towards the pivots. (Or they just flap a little on the bus, too, and nobody cares.)

But on my car, I notice them vibrating a lot and it bothers me, perhaps just because they are right there in front of my eyes all the time.

I'm thinking of putting a rod or other such stiffener under the arms to reduce this. I don't want to thicken them too much thought because they are already and obstruction.

I've also considered just really lubing my window up with RainX and otherwise doing nothing at all.

 

[ydeardorff]

Warren,
I have to ride a base bus from my ship to the parking lot every day, and I got to stand up front due to the lack of seats, and of course started staring down those bus wiper blades. And low and behold your coveted squirter is mounted on the arm itself, just clipped on.
The supply tube is black and just runs down the arm simply clipped to it the whole way.

I have played with the idea of using a larger length blade, and to start studying the countach wiper assy. What ever they did with it seems to work. It might be worth replicating, if it helps.

I bet a call to the local city bus company would render a supplier, and ordering info for that squirter.*rock on*

On a side note. Could adding another length of that spring steel arm make a difference in the strength of the blade?

 

[thestevie]

I believe when the water squirter is attached to the wiper arm its called a wet arm.
you can get a kit for them. something like this

i think theres a guy on the nova site that made a double wiper system for his nova.
ill have to check it out

 

[farfegnubbin]

Thanks, Ken. That's a good source for an add-on squirter. I know that Dave (Sterling Sports Cars) has a whole unit with a built-in squirter as well. I'm tempted to update my whole unit just to start fresh.

General thought for everyone: I also think it's important to buy stuff from Dave when we can. His prices are fair, and, even if any one thing could be gotten cheaper elsewhere, I feel like it's good for all of us to help him stay afloat. In general, I think that buying as many supplies as possible from Dave is a very good thing for the community in the long run. It's kind of like the whole "Buy American" thing. In this case, it's "Buy Dave."

Regarding that Nova with the dual wipers, did it have two separate wipers or two blades on the one pantograph wiper? I couldn't immediately find the post there.

 

[thestevie]

oh I didn't know Dave had them. I'll have to check it out.

link
the last picture in the post with the large group of pictures. you'll see the mechanics of it.
judging from that it is two separate wipers.

 

[ydeardorff]

Once I get done saving for the 944 rear suspension parts(July). Ill be buying the RX kit from him. I know that!

Hear that Dave? Ill be buying that from you, just give me a little bit of time OK?*thumbs up*