Windshield Wiper Blade Positioning (1 Viewer)

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Kansas City
All, I have searched and have not found a good answer. If I missed it, thank you for your patience with me. 1995 FZJ80, I recently replaced the windshield wiper motor. Admittedly, I paid absolutely ZERO attention to how the wiper arm and motor arm were aligned when I took it out because I had quite the time separating the two. When I reinstalled the wiper blades and ran the motor, their stopping position was approximately 1/3 of the way up the windshield. I read on here to remove the arms, run the wiper motor for a cycle and let the studs come to a natural stop, and then replace the arms.

I did that yesterday and now have the following:

Any advice on how to remedy this would be greatly appreciated. I have never worked on a wiper arm assembly before, and am just enough :banana: mechanic to get myself into trouble. Thanks in advance!
 
All, I have searched and have not found a good answer. If I missed it, thank you for your patience with me. 1995 FZJ80, I recently replaced the windshield wiper motor. Admittedly, I paid absolutely ZERO attention to how the wiper arm and motor arm were aligned when I took it out because I had quite the time separating the two. When I reinstalled the wiper blades and ran the motor, their stopping position was approximately 1/3 of the way up the windshield. I read on here to remove the arms, run the wiper motor for a cycle and let the studs come to a natural stop, and then replace the arms.

I did that yesterday and now have the following:

Any advice on how to remedy this would be greatly appreciated. I have never worked on a wiper arm assembly before, and am just enough :banana: mechanic to get myself into trouble. Thanks in advance!

Something's not clocked right. It's returning to a good home position, so it's not just the wiper position, it looks like there must be a gear or hole or other adjustment in the linkage or motor that isn't in the proper position. Unfortunately I have never gotten into that particular system so I can't be of more specific help. You have any local friends with 80's that will let you take theirs apart to verify?
 
I had as similar issue a few years ago, 180 degrees off at the motor (lever arm/bracket) equated to 45 degrees of wiper arc at the wiper arms which caused the wipers to hit the cowl, exactly as in your video.

In my case I had disassembled the wiper motor completely, including the short arm or bracket that attaches the motor to the linkage, and when I put it back together I had it 180 degrees out. My fix was to reposition the small arm on the back of the motor, but if you didn't touch that arm then you wouldn't need to reposition it, just make sure it is aligned as in the photo below.


Point is: you could unbolt the motor from the firewall and look at it to compare to the photo. Best as I recall it shows the correct position of the wiper motor lever/arm when connected to the wiper linkage in the rest position. In other words the small lever arm should be pointing to the 9 O'clock position.


Front wiper linkage resting position.JPG
 
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I had as similar issue a few years ago, 180 degrees off at the motor (lever arm/bracket) equated to 45 degrees of wiper arc at the wiper arms which caused the wipers to hit the cowl, exactly as in your video.

In my case I had disassembled the wiper motor completely, including the short arm or bracket that attaches the motor to the linkage, and when I put it back together I had it 180 degrees out. My fix was to repostion the small arm on the back of the motor, but if you didn't touch that arm then you wouldn't need to reposition it, just make sure it is aligned as in the photo below.


Point is: you could unbolt the motor from the firewall and look at it to compare to the photo. Best as I recall it shows the correct position of the wiper motor lever/arm when connected to the wiper linkage in the rest position. In other words the small lever arm should be pointing to the 9 O'clock position.


View attachment 3050107
Kernal, this is SUPER helpful. Thank you! If it weren't 100 degrees outside here in KC today I'd knock it out this evening.
 
Kernal, this is SUPER helpful. Thank you! If it weren't 100 degrees outside here in KC today I'd knock it out this evening.
@Kernal is absolutely right. I did the same on mine when I changed the wiper motor. It is at the shaft of the motor to the wiper arm connection. You were supposed to pay attention EXACTLY where it was positioned before removing it. (Something I didn't do either) and mine is one tooth off. My wipers stop about 6" above the bottom. I just have never taken the time to re-clock the motor because some day I'm going to re-install the OEM motor (now that new ones are no longer available)
 
Just a random comment on wiper arm replacement. It's good practice to put a piece of tape under the wiper edge and draw a line right where it touches the tape so you can clock the new arm perfectly to factory spec. Nothing to do with what's amiss here, but for future Cruiser heads...
 
That's a good idea.

Or (if you didn't mark the positions) have another 80 in the driveway to measure the distance up the windshield where those wiper blades are located. ;)

Just did this (replaced the wiper arms) on my 97 model but didn't mark it beforehand. So went over to the 96 model and measured, about 1" or so up from the rubber gasket depending on which side and where you measure. They both ended up about horizontal, a bit lower at the tip.
 
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Thank you all so much for the great responses and tips!
 

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