Re: Wiper Arms

I doubt you'll find that, but if not, should your concern be the blades sticking to the glass, one approach could be a couple of maybe one to three inch long 1" x 2" placed under each arm against the windshield and kept handily stored in the glove box when not in use.

Yes, have been using a couple of pieces of 2x2, but some wipers like my new truck would be nice.

Understand your concern, but doubt that you will find something that will fit (but who knows?) My "solution" - put a piece of cardboard from an empty roll of TP under the arm near the pivot.

FWIW I love the body style of that series Chevy truck. My grandfather waited until late '72 to buy a new truck because he always wanted the latest and greatest :( But on the upside that is still a nice truck and my dad still has it, and it's still in good shape (he did a mini-resto on the bed this past winter, to fix it again after I did it the first time while I was still in high school. My homemade varnished pine bed floor was finally starting to look a little shabby so he did it again with oak this time.)

What are you using for blades? I'm kind of a snob about using the original low profile matte finish blades on these vehicles. Let me know if you need some advice on refilling them inexpensively; I used to have a writeup on my web site (Studebakers shared a lot of stuff with other mfgrs; they tended to use whatever wipers a similar MY Corvette used) but I don't have web hosting anymore.

good luck

nate

Anyone intelligent that has tried the cardboard, plastic, wax paper ... route under the blades soon discovers that extraction, storage, replacement, disposal ... concerns quickly render the idea much more trouble than it's worth. Not to mention that the blades can, at times, instead of glass, now simply have a new medium with which to stick. Preventing contact in the first place, such as propping them up, is clearly the way to go.

I continue to be endlessly amused by (always the same) poseurs who respond by tantamount to parroting others remarks (in an unattributed fashion), in the same thread, as though they contribute (or could) an original idea.

Well it would take a bit of work but you could probably adapt the ramp/arm lift like is used on the rear wipers on the GM SUVs. The Blazers use a small piece that looks like a ducks bill attached to the wiper arm and a ramp attached to the lower section. When the wiper parks it rides up the ramp and lifts 1/2" off the rear gate. BUT the problem then becomes how to make it work on a system that doesn't have a low park position. The easy way around that might be to adapt the motor off one as well. With the factory system the park position is simply the bottom of the wiper swing. With the newer system you have a wiping section and a low park position.

Or you could probably make something using a solenoid type control that lifts the arms with a spring and the solenoid retracts the spring to a reset position.

yeah, it would have to be independent on an older wiper. you can't have the thing lifting up onto a ramp on every stroke. the gm rear wiper system has a run position that's different to the park position, so if you can step the motor backwards, you can ramp. if not, then you need another means.

The trick would be finding a modern motor with a park position that has a small angle difference between the park position and the run position. That or pulling one apart to reconfigure the park system for less motion. That way you would have a sweep angle that started say an inch above the current stop and when shut down it would retract that inch and ramp.

I wonder if the hide away wiper system from a 2nd gen Camaro (or similar set-up) would work. That pulled the wipers down about 2" IIRC.

The trick with an add on like a solenoid system would be making sure that the failure mode allows wiper operation without jamming.

Might be easier to cut up a modern arm and attach it to the OEM knuckle. Then you could just lift the arm straight up.

Is the spline gear still the same size as in 1971? What size is the spline gear the wiper arm slides onto? If it did change, what year was it? Then I'll just go to the junk yard and buy anything I can find that is the same length.

Thanks,

Vic

indeed.

I *suspect* but cannot prove that it's probably the same until at least whenever the body style that was introduced in 1973 was discontinued (Wikipedia says 1987) however those trucks did not have an "over center" type arm either. I suspect that anything that *would* will likely be matte black not matte stainless as well as this functionality was not widely adopted on US-made vehicles until recently, in some cases very, very recently. Don't know if the OP cares about color; but it would bother me. The absolute worst is seeing a vehicle with black wiper blade frames on the original stainless arms... I cannot stand that. All new black stuff might not look so bad, especially if the vehicle is modified.

From searching online even the GMT400 (subsequent body style, 1988-98) pickup truck wipers do not go "over center",, but looking at pics online they look like they have a little pull out latch thing to hold them on the splines similar to my Jeep Cherokee. If they work the same as the ones on the Cherokee, if you pull that latch out with your thumbnail, that locks the arm in a slightly elevated position (and also unlocks it from the spline, presumably intended to help you more easily remove the arm from the vehicle) but can be used for the purpose the OP intends. They also use the hook style attachment so you could run e.g. PIAA silicone blades if you wanted, without nasty looking high profile adapters.

I suspect anything '99 or newer is going to have a more "laid back" windshield and those arms will be too long, requiring cutting apart and welding back together, or else drilling out the rivets, drilling new holes in the main part of the arm to shorten, and bolting together with machine screws, to use on a 69-72. That is just pure speculation on my part however.

NB: I have no idea whether the length of the arms is suitable for use on a 67-72 or not even if the splines are the same.

nate

They don't make windshield wiper blades (the rubber, or whatever material?) as good as they used to.Nowadays, they don't last anytime at all.

good as they used to.Nowadays, they don't last anytime at all.

Trust me, PIAA silicone is the way to go. I've been using them for years and only refilled one set (which was on two company vehicles in a row, I originally purchased them in 2006 and it's now late 2012. Turned in the second car they were on a couple months ago and they were still good at that time.)

I have Silblades on my Jeep (because they appeared to be a similar product but were about half the price at the time I purchased them) and I actually think the rubber part might be slightly better than PIAA but the glossy metallic black finish on the frames is crap; we've had non-glaring wiper frames for decades and someone decided to forget what it felt like to have the sun bouncing right off a glossy metal frame and into your eyes while driving (has actually happened to me, both on very old cars and on the Jeep.)

Obviously if I'd seen them hanging side by side on a store display I'd have passed on the Silblades in favor of PIAA; I don't know why neither of these products are actually carried in stores. They're superior to every other blade that I've ever tried.

NB: I recently purchased a 2009 BMW which is just about ready for new wiper blades. They're Valeo/SWF 900 series a.k.a. "Ultimate" wipers - about the same price as the PIAAs actually. If they're original to the car, that's a good endorsement. If they've been replaced, the PIAAs win. I don't have a record of them having been replaced (I do have the dealer's service records for this car) but that doesn't necessarily mean that the PO didn't just buy them over the counter and replace them himself. Unfortunately it looks like I'm stuck using these wipers for this car unless I get creative. (expletive deleted) proprietary stuff that really doesn't have to be... just like the front turn signal bulbs.

good luck...

nate

Things like windshield wiper splines may stay the same for decades on end. I think your best chance is to go to a self serve salvage yard and see what you can find from a more modern GM product that will fit.

Don't limit the search to trucks or even the same blade length. What you need is arms that will work on your truck that you can match a blade length to so it will clear the windshield. The old style wiper blades were usually a fair bit smaller than the windshield, so a different length arm with a new blade size might work out fine. Also consider running a larger driver's side blade and a smaller passenger side blade. This may be a way to avoid interferences between the two. Essentially it's mix and match until something that works is found.

If color is an issue odds are they'll be black so just paint them silver (and the wiper blade frames too). If done right it should look reasonably good.

Eh, I think length will be an issue. My recollection of those trucks is that the windshield was pretty vertical and short relative to newer vehicles, and that at the same time the blades were fairly short - a combo of a shorter arm and longer blade would have resulted in more complete wiping of the windshield. I want to say that the stock blades were somewhere in the 15-16" range?

Basically if you find an arm that is "close" in length to the stock arm, you then need to purchase blades that are as long as possible without running off the passenger side or top of the windshield when actually in use.

But as you say this is probably something best addressed by visiting an automotive recycling facility, if you can still find one that will let you walk around and actually handle the merchandise.

nate

It all depends on the particulars. There are probably a number of solutions but it involves getting measurments off his truck and then moving forward with that to the junkyard with a measuring tape and maybe one of the arms from the truck.

Self serve yards... lots of them around these days. Pay a buck or two to get in then browse all ya want.

Maybe in your neck of the woods... also where I grew up... not so much around here. There appear to be lots of regional differences and it's disappointing to me that the self-serve yard (at least around here) seems to be a dying breed. Crazy Ray's is the only one that I'm aware of although I haven't had a need for one in a while.

nate

Nate N:

And the legalistic climate lately hasn't helped! At least here in CT the two yards closest to me have signs stating "For insurance purposes customers NOT ALLOWED in scrap area".

Though depending on wha you tell them you're looking for they might let you go back there.

yards closest to me have signs stating "For insurance purposes customers NOT ALLOWED in scrap area".

back there.

i don't think i buy that for two reasons:

1. the pull-it-yourself places suffer significant losses due to "vandalism", i.e. people who wreck stuff rather than remove it to get at wheat they want. cut wire harnesses rather than simply unclipping a plug, seats slashed, dashboards smashed, glass broken, etc. etc. etc. all were potentially saleable components. by having only their people pull the parts, they much reduce the vandalism,
2. by controlling access, they also control what you get to see, and thus buy - you can only get what they give you rather than let you surf the whole yard until you find the good alternator, the good starter, the good distributor, etc.

there are plenty of pull-it-yourself places left, but the bottom line with them is that they don't care because selling parts is a secondary business, not primary. here on the west coast, the dominant steel recycler is schinitzer steel. they own a load of junkyards which they operate under the "pick-n-pull" name. sure, these yards make money. but their real purpose is to provide schnitzer with the raw material they need at a controlled cost rather than having to pay full market scrap price.

yards closest to me have signs stating "For insurance purposes customers NOT ALLOWED in scrap area".

go back there.

Chicago yards often divide their operations or specialize. Some finer than others.

Full Serve : generally all cars less than 10 years old (may or may not have an attached self serve business) Self Serve : generally all cars greater than 10 years old. Scrap: After cars have been picked over. Insurance yards: Usually entire operations. Cars are auctioned or otherwise sold to those with auto repair and/or salavage licenses. Wheels: Some yards have a separate operation for the wheels and wheel covers. Repair: Some yards have an attached business that does transmission and engine swaps.

Enterance into the self serve lot is just for what they put there. There is no access to the scrap, wheel, full serve, or other operational areas except to exit self serve and go to the counter of the desired other business unit. However, depending on how the operation works talking to the counter guy may get some access. IME it has only been to look at wheels already inventoried and on shelves or with an employee to take a subassembly apart so I was satisified with it.

WRT to people wrecking things, most people are fairly well behaved and not much gets broken. It does happen, sometimes frustratingly so as it was a part I would have purchased, but all in all it's at a low enough level. Also by having only older vehicles in self serve their high-profit late model parts are protected.