Wiper issues on a 1987 5th Ave...

53ryder

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Looking at a 1987 5th Avenue for sale about 10 miles from my home today. While checking things out to see what worked and what didn't I discovered the driver wiper worked but the passenger side didn't move at all. The owner and I opened the hood, pulled off the rubber screen near the firewall to check out the wiper connections. We saw how the connecting 'bars' attach from the motor to the shaft of the drivers wiper blade and how there is a bar, or narrow piece of metal, that runs from the driver side wiper over to the passenger side wiper. When everything is connected properly your wiper blades work in unison.

We manually attached everything and turned the wipers on and nothing happened. The motor turned okay. All the metal connecting bars fell off the shaft of the driver side wiper. So then I figured something must hold them in place on the shaft. I then started feeling around blindly and found a very brittle end cap with a crack in it. It was so brittle with age that it broke into two pieces with little handling. See photos.

Does anyone know what this piece is called? Does anyone have a spare? Or know where I might find one?
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53ryder

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Thank you 80mirada! Ordered some from Rock Auto. Have just never come across this issue before, but I knew someone here would know!

Glenn
 

Rustyroger

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I replaced the bushes on my Fifth Avenue, cost very little for a kit to be sent from the USA to England, I think they were Dorman brand. Took all the slack out of the mechanism.

Roger.
 

Logan

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If you haven't replaced the bushings yet, take the extra 5 minutes to pull the wiper arms off and remove the whole mechanism. It's really so much easier and you can do a better job cleaning and greasing the system. The extra bonus is that you'll save a few bandaids and your hands won't ache for days.
 
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