Pre cutting myself

I sneak one of my wifes birth control pills for the bigger jobs that I know are going to screw me. So far it hasn't worked at all and I have two little boys to boot. I might have to try the precut method from now on.

I can relate. The wipers on my wife's BMW started failing to park in the correct position a couple weeks ago. They would wipe fully, then park in the middle of the windshield. The problem was a loose nut on the motor unit's output shaft. The shaft turns a short arm in a continuous circle, the other end connecting to stacked links for each wiper arm. The little arm's interface to the motor unit's output shaft is a conical, splined connection.

So, of course the wiper motor is completely buried under the windshield cowl, only accessible after removing a variety of other parts on the firewall, etc. There is NO WAY to get a wrench or socket on that nut. The linkage even covers it from the top 100%. So, for attempt #1 on this repair, I used a punch to tighten the nut (even after cutting down a spanner, which also wouldn't fit). It's a 13mm nut so I couldn't get much leverage with the punch, but I got it really tight and that solved the problem. Keep in mind that even getting to the nut involved being splayed out, laying across the engine, shredding knuckles, etc.

Fast forward to Thursday, when we had that big snow. My wife throws the wipers on without breaking them free from the ice on the windshield- immediately blows my repair and has to drive 40 minutes through snow with the wipers parking right in the middle of the windshield. Every wipe is metal on metal grinding/etc. between the motor and that arm.

So of course I have to fix that Thursday night. This time I took the entire motor/linkage unit out, wipers off, cowling off, etc. so I could get the whole thing on a bench. The splines on the arm interface were pretty much gone but the shaft spines were still good. Cleaned them off and put as much torque on that nut as I could without stripping it. Put everything back together and it's still holding solid. My hands are dotted with little cuts, all over.

Ironically the connection between each wiper arm and the unit is about 10X bigger/stronger than the one used to drive the entire assembly.

Pete - I had a car once that had the hood cable came loose from the firewall socket, only way to open hood was to reach up under dash with both hands,(one holding the sheath).

So I am in the middle of Iowa, at a convenience store, & decide to check oil. I pull on the cable & something slips - my thumbnail gets pierced with the sharp barb of a panel clip & there I am with my throbbing hand stuck under the dash.

It was one of those moments when there is no choice but to bear the pain - I had to pull it through to get loose. No one was going to rescue me.

Never will forget that one.

Good one Chris!! Damn, the old school auto mechanic is now called a "tech"! They just plug in the diagnostics and figure out what's wrong. God help them if they have to pick up a tool!