My friend texted saying that the front wipers on his 2009 Nissan Versa were out of sync. I invited him over, fully expecting that the soft metal on the base of one of the wiper arms had deteriorated and was no longer firmly affixed to the splined shaft on the linkage.
I expected to tighten down the arm, or remove it and put in a bit of aluminum foil to take up the slack.
But no - the driver's-side arm was firmly (very firmly - it was a beast to remove) still attached to the linkage, but was not moving well, much slower than the passenger-side wiper, so the two wipers were clashing.
The wiper blade had frozen to the windshield, and when my friend went to use the wipers, it seems something broke in the linkage.
There are a couple of options on Rock Auto for replacement linkage assemblies, but when the weather improves we'll remove the cowl first and see if we can get away with a repair rather than a full replacement.
But in the meantime, it's full-on wiper season, with mild temperatures, and lots of slush and puddles on the streets.
So, my work-around, until we can do a proper repair, was to transplant the larger driver's-side wiper onto the passenger-side splined shaft, and readjust the parked position so as to maximize the sweep of the one-only wiper.
We're pretty happy with the results - the coverage is almost as good as it was with two wipers. If I'd used duct tape, I'm sure Red Green would have welcomed me into the Possum Lodge.
I expected to tighten down the arm, or remove it and put in a bit of aluminum foil to take up the slack.
But no - the driver's-side arm was firmly (very firmly - it was a beast to remove) still attached to the linkage, but was not moving well, much slower than the passenger-side wiper, so the two wipers were clashing.
The wiper blade had frozen to the windshield, and when my friend went to use the wipers, it seems something broke in the linkage.
There are a couple of options on Rock Auto for replacement linkage assemblies, but when the weather improves we'll remove the cowl first and see if we can get away with a repair rather than a full replacement.
But in the meantime, it's full-on wiper season, with mild temperatures, and lots of slush and puddles on the streets.
So, my work-around, until we can do a proper repair, was to transplant the larger driver's-side wiper onto the passenger-side splined shaft, and readjust the parked position so as to maximize the sweep of the one-only wiper.
We're pretty happy with the results - the coverage is almost as good as it was with two wipers. If I'd used duct tape, I'm sure Red Green would have welcomed me into the Possum Lodge.
