There is probably no one that has had an old Dodge truck that has not had to replace the 30-40 year old wiper arm grommets. I always hated that job and I do not think the current grommets are nearly as good as the factory ones were. I decided that while my truck was wrecked and down for a rebuild, I would fix this issue, hopefully once and for all. The problem with this set up is that it is difficult to get everything back into the cowl after the new bushings are all in place. And I have not been able to get them in place while still in the cowl. Anyway here is my answer to the problem.
First cut one of the strips of metal out between the holes in the top of the cowl. This gives you more than plenty of room to get everything in and out easily. ( Yes the factory could have done this) The area is still plenty strong with out it.
Then onto the brackets! Here is what you are starting with.
There are 4 plastic inserts and a corresponding stud to each one. The studs on the wiper arm piece are removed by cutting the head off of them and then driving the rest of the stud out of the steel arm. The arms are is plenty thick and I tapped each hole for a 3/8" bolt.
I next went to the hardware store and searched for nylon bushing and they happened to have an almost perfect size bushing for what I wanted to do. I got the bushings, bolts and a nylock nut for each one I was replacing. I think the bushing outside diameter was .562 I used 1" long bolts and used the thin nylock nuts
The bushing is a 3/8" ID matching the bolt, and it is almost the perfect size OD of the hole that is left when you take out the plastic insert. Just take a small round file and go lightly around the hole. I made mine so the the new bushing pushed in pretty tightly. The bushings are about 1/2" wide and I put mine against a sanding wheel and ground them down to about a 1/4" width. Thread your bolt into the arm, install a flat washer, then the arm with the bushing, another washer on top and the Nylock nut. Draw it down to take all the play out and you end up with this.
Of course I put some good grease on all of the pivot points before I assembled it. 3 of them are done the same. One of the studs is crimped into a thinner bracket arm and it is too thin to thread. So I drilled it out and got a thin jam nut from the hardware store and bolted the bolt tight to the arm. Then I installed the rest of it the same. Now you can easily remove this assembly, plus you can move it around without worrying that the new grommets are going to fall apart before you get it back in the truck. I will update on how this works in real life as soon as I get the truck back together. Hope this helps someone.
Rick
PS. Even if you continue to use the same factory type grommets, save yourself a lot of grief by just cutting out that little piece of metal. You'll be glad you did!
5/17/16 Update - This works like a charm. I drove it in the rain 5 or 6 times and it works exactly like it should. no noises, no clunking, and no worries about it falling off. It takes a little bit of work but in a hour or two you can be done with it for good.
12/30/16 Did my second truck today. Linkage was already out so it only took about a hour to do it.
7/29/23- 7 years out and it still works like a charm.
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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!
12.70 @ 104.6
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