So there I was driving along the other day in a bad rain storm and the passenger side windshield wiper just stopped working. First I thought the blade came loose, but the arm had just stopped working. Now when I turn them on the driver's side works properly, but the passenger's side wiper just sits there. Please help me out here.
A year and model would help, but I would guess that the actuator arm under the cowl of the windshield fell off. There should be some plastic trim at the base of the windshield outside or maybe an access panel at the firewall in the engine bay.
Mitsubishi's from at least 93 onwards have more or less the same system. The wiper pivots are connected with rods that have a snap-on plastic socket over a hard steel ball on the pivot arm.
The plastic parts wear out eventually, and sometime fall off. These plastic parts are of course not an available spare, so you have to fix or replace with a part from a wrecker. I've found that its sometime necessary to glue the part back into the rod, then make a clamp out of some 26G steel. This clamp hooks round the end of the rod, and is bolted with an M4 to the rod. There's a hole in the rod that can be used if you tap it out with an M4 tap.
On older cars, you also find that the pivot shafts get rusty and jam in the ABS pivot housings. These housings have three embedded M6 mounting bolts: the nuts on top also tend to rust in. I've been able to get the nuts off by cutting a slot in the M6 so it can be held with a screwdriver. Worst case I cut the nut off with a Dremel tool. Once the housing is off the car, its simple enough to disassemble, clean and lubricate the shafts.
Stewart DIBBS
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