Rear wiper only gets half the window?

[zuke24]

Didn't realize it until it was raining today, but my rear wiper leaves the holder like it should and starts its wiping motion and completely misses the first half of the window. It doesn't make contact until halfway through its arc and then clears the driver's side.

Anyone have issues like this? Is it just a matter of bending the arm to make it more in contact with the window?

 

[toypaseo]

Here’s what I did..,

Removed rear wiper. Filled sink with HOT water and Ivory dish soap. Let whole arm soak. Cleaned with toothbrush all around the hinge. Continue soak. Keep working hinge, and more cleaning with toothbrush. Finally the hinge worked like it should. No binding. Now rear wiper works like new.

After a while, it went back to crappy wiping. My ex-Ford mechanic neighbor told me to hit the arm hinges with PB Blaster. I did that, and works fine. When at the self serve car wash, I always hit the rear arm hinges with the high pressure wash also…

 

[Mbrooks420]

The root cause is the flimsy bracket inside the door. It gets bent and then doesn’t hold the arm tight to the window.

 

[zuke24]

The root cause is the flimsy bracket inside the door. It gets bent and then doesn’t hold the arm tight to the window.

Is there an easy fix for this? Just get in there and bend it back?

Edit: found it I guess

 

[Mbrooks420]

You can also get better pressure on the glass by taking material off the wiper arm stops, but the best bet is to bend that bracket to put pressure on it.

 

[toypaseo]

Another 2¢… my ex-Ford mechanic neighbor told me to not bend anything…

 

[donalds]

I think he means to remove the wiper motor and bend back the problematic bracket

 

[zuke24]

Confirmed it's the bracket inside the door. The entire assembly moves around at the spindle!

 

[zuke24]

Ok, maybe confirmed was premature.

Went to a junkyard and found a BUNCH of parts I was sure I'd never find. Pulled a new bracket and went to work replacing it. When I pulled the original, it didn't look any different except the rubber bushings looked old and cracked and the bolts weren't very tight. Replaced it anyway, cranked everything down, and tested. It no longer wobbles on the spindle and seems much more sure of itself. But it still misses half the window.

 

[Mbrooks420]

You’re not going to find a good bracket. They’re all bent by now. The only other things it could be is the spring is bad, the arm has been bent by someone trying to fix this previously, or the hinge is bound up.

Even when set up correctly they weren’t great. I only used mine to knock the snow off.

 

[zuke24]

Ok, so this design just sucks! Slightly bent the arm, just a titch, and it works great! Except NOW the wiper gets caught on the glass and won't come onto the glass at all. If I get out and lift it off the edge of the glass, it all works fine.

 

[BluIsBlue]

The way I fixed this issue on my 01’ 2dr was I pulled that little cover above the boot up. This’ll expose a nut. I just took a wrench and tightened that down and it worked fine for me.

 

[zuke24]

The way I fixed this issue on my 01’ 2dr was I pulled that little cover above the boot up. This’ll expose a nut. I just took a wrench and tightened that down and it worked fine for me.

I appreciate that. I completely disassembled everything and put it back together so I cranked that down when I reassembled it. I'm thinking the sheet metal the bracket is bolted to (the actual metal for the door) is bent. Only other thing I can think of is the rubber bushings have dried and shrunk, throwing the spacing off.