Wipers Go Down Before Going Up?

[actionstan]

Hello All,

1999 Saturn SL1

The other day after shutting my car off, I accidentally left my wipers on, long story short.. overnight they had frozen to the windshield. And when I turned he car on the next day, the wipers were stuck to the window.

After I freed the wipers, they would go all the way up, down, then back up and park at the middle of the windshield.. I was able to force them down a little, However now they go slightly down, 1/2 inch or so, they work fine for now, but I would like to adjust them for them to no longer do this.

I imagine its just something in the linkage that needs to be adjusted.. unless I messed up the motor some how. If it is just the linkage, is there a certain way it needs to be set to properly be synced? Just a note, I do not think this has anything to do with the actual splines where the wiper arms connect to, I don't believe they are stripped, and believe they are still in good condition.


Let me know what you think.

 

[eljefino]

Take off the 13mm nuts under the little caps where the wiper axles come up through the cowl.

Set your blades correctly, line up what's left of the splines, and cinch 'em down.

If you still have covers over the nuts, simply lift them off with your fingers.

They'll strip easier next time, so do a good job clearing the ice.

I just sold a saturn and had the windscreen all painted up with the price. For whatever reason, although the wiper switch was off, it wanted to get "one last swipe" in, ruining my work.

Used kids' water soluble finger paint. Worked great.

 

[yonyon]

It sounds to me like the crank arm of the wiper transmission has somehow slipped into the wrong clock position on the wiper motor. If that is what happened; to fix it:

Get the cowl off. Check that all of the joints in the wiper transmission feel tight and aren't about to break on you at a bad time. Optionally, work some lube into the wiper pivots as these are known to rust up and ruin the whole wiper transmission. Unbolt the crank arm from the wiper motor and free it up. Switch the wipers first on, then off so the motor parks. Turn the crank arm until the pivots that turn the actual wiper arms are in the fully down position. Tighten up the nut that holds the crank arm to the wiper motor. Run the wipers again and verify that it stops with the pivots in the down position. Put everything back together.

Edit: If it's cold outside and your fingers go numb while you're trying to get the cowl off, consider speeding up the process using a hatchet or wearing gloves.