Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998
Dear Glenn,
I have a 1970 1800E, one of the better ones in Australia. One problem I have though is that the driver's side wiper (which is on the right out here) has fallen off, and there doesn't seem to be any obvious way to resecure it: no screw, no clip etc. From what I can gather, it's meant to be held in place by virtue of a tight fit alone, and the passage of years has loosened it up. As we are getting a lot of rain at the moment, and I have some travel to do, I am possibly going to have to glue it on, but I am loathe to do that as I will never be able to get it off should the need ever arise. Any ideas?
Simon Merrifield
spm@computech.com.au
Simon - A similar thing happened to me several years ago, and I used Loctite thread locking compound to fix it. Loctite is available in various mixtures including permanent and removable. I used the removable type, and I've never had trouble from the wiper arm again nor had to remove it.
If your wipers are like mine, there is a little toothed hat that sits on the splined shaft that comes up through the cowling. The toothed hat sometimes separates from the shaft and remains inside the end of the wiper arm, but it is supposed to stay on the shaft. Normally when removing the wiper arm, you press a small locking tab out of the way to avoid removing the hat. If the hat remains in the end of the wiper arm, you can remove it by pressing the locking tab and shaking it out.
The hat is press-fit onto the shaft, and it's an ideal place to use Loctite. When I first shared this infomation with a group of 1800 enthusiasts, one of them was skeptical that it would work for long. He had instead drilled a small hole through the hat and shaft and installed a steel roll pin. This seems like a lot of trouble to me, and no more likely to hold up than my method. -Glenn.
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