I'm headed home to switch cars in a week and I need to some work on my '95. I was driving one day with my wipers on and it sounded like something in the linkage broke. If I turn on the wiper switch, the motor turns on and sounds like it's turning, but I think the linkage disconnected itself somehow. What all is involved in the linkage? Isn't there a bar that goes across the two wipers to connect them? And are there clips or what that hold the bar to the wiper arms? What is the best way to gain access to that area to make the repair? Thanks.

 

I replaced my motor, was not too bad but it is really hard to get in there and work. I pair of REALLY long needle nose plyers will help to compress the ball into the rubber joint.

Basically there are two arms going from the motor to the passenger side arm. To get to everything you need to remove the plastic cover at the bottom of the windshield (have to remove the wiper blades too I think) which is held in by those plastic push things. Watch for the winshield washer hose disconnect and reconnect when all done. Once that is off you can see the motor on the drivers side and the linkage, pretty simple system. Everything is connected by two rubber joints if I remember correctly, they pop in with alot of force, twice I did not have them in far enough and when I turned the wipers on they popped out again.....in came the long needle nose plyers that got in there and popped them on nice and tight. No problems since, watch for dropping nuts down in the car it is fun getting them out

 

wiper motor and linkage

 

Shoebox, you deserve a Nobel Peace Prize.

I took that plastic cowling off and quickly discovered the problem. The splines on the wiper motor and both my arms are severely stripped. Does this just happen over time, or what? The car is a '95 Z28 and has 109k on it. Looks like it's time to order some new wiper arms and a wiper motor.

 

If it's just the splines where the arms are.. [why tho? did it freeze or snow etc?] I wouldn't go buy new ones yet until trying this:
Take the arms off, clean the splines good with a small wire brush[get all the 'die cast' metal out] then clean the inner hole on the arms..
Put them back on then tighten the nuts.. [it should 'recut' the splines in the arm, since it's soft diecast metal going onto harder tapered splined shafts..]
Also if thats all it was, you didn't need to open anything up by the motor..

 

I'll give this a try when I get back home, but it really looks like they are both stripped out beyond repair.