Windscreen wiper failure - Quick fix

A couple of weeks ago this happened



The drivers side just parked itself in an upright position. I thought, bless her, she just wants more attention from me.

David Aikegate helped out with is reply;
I've just repaired ours after it did the very same thing, doh.
I got the uprated system from Mike Satur. You can drill through the ball joint and fit a nut and bolt, or temporarily use a hot soldering iron to melt the palstic cup around the ball.

It was the hot bit of David's reply which got me thinking.

I cleaned up the end of the arm with the socket on, then using a silicone spray carefully coated the ball at the end of the the other arm and reassembled the wiper mechanism.
I then used a hot glue gun to apply glue generously to the assembled joint.



The silicone coating on the ball stopped the glue adhering to to the ball but allowed it to form around it and all over the socket end to make a plastic housing which has, to date, kept everything in place.
It has had quite a lot of use over the past weeks and on inspecting it today the whole arrangement is very secure and works perfectly. It looks a bit crude but to be honest in the normal parked position you don't actually see it.

Obviously only time will tell but the fix was done in five mins and in principle should stop the two arms from popping apart.

That is ingenious, Paul. :yesnod:

I wish I'd thought of that instead of splashing out on Mike Satur's expensive version. :thumbsup:

its a damn fine fix, even better if it lasts a substantial amount of time :thumbsup:

I have had a 15 min spell with the wipers on full speed whilst going down the motorway as well as a lot of normal driving with them on.

I was going to drill it out and put a bolt on but didn't have time as I needed to go out so thought I'd do David's 'melt the plastic cup' and then thought of the the hot gun idea.

As they say necessity is the mother of invention. I'll let you know how it's getting on, perhaps next autumn.

I don't know if I would want to rely on hot glue as a permanent fix, but as a bodge to last until the proper part arrives it could do the trick. It seems whenever I take the easy/inexpensive way out it lets me down at the worst possible time! :silly:

its so annoying that windscreen wipers only ever break when its pouring down and your miles from home

That sort of thing usually happens to me early on a dark morning when I'm late for work.
I came out Wednesday morning to find out my clutch flex hose had expired during the night
and bled all of it's vital fluid onto the driveway.
I had to take the old TR7 rattletrap into work.

Of course, things never go wrong when it doesn't matter. :whistle:

Whilst pottering about, fitting new wiper blades, I knocked the drivers side wiper bar off by simply brushing against it. It clicked back on ok, then I found this thread.

The wiper arm doesn't come off but I thought I would make a simple ghetto fix based on the need to reassure myself that it wouldn't just drop off with a jolt during the next storm miles from home. Here it is..

Zip ties.. :lol: carry some.

Added this thread to the A-Z list of 'How tos' :thumbsup:

Quick update, the glue gun fix is rock solid and has kept the linkage together through the last few hundred miles in the rain.

I reckon this may be worth doing just a precaution against failure in the future.

PQD44 wrote: Quick update, the glue gun fix is rock solid and has kept the linkage together through the last few hundred miles in the rain.

I reckon this may be worth doing just a precaution against failure in the future.

Excellent! Deserving of cunning plan award?