How To Fix Leaking Wiper Pivot Seals

Thirty years ago, one of the plastic bushings on my 74 Dart broke and I had to repair it without a FSM or instructions (pre-internet days). I was upside down for hours cursing the engineer that made this repair so difficult.

Thirty years later and three years into my restoration, I originally decided not to do this wiper pivot repair. THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A MISTAKE. For any of you doing a restoration on a thirty-plus year old car, the Schumacher repair kit is $11.50 plus $5.00 shipping. DO THE REPAIR.

My dash was back together and I decided I did not want water leaking on my new carpet. Without removing the radio or heater/air control switch, I removed the heater box and the plastic box that holds the heater core and the glove box. (I left the core in.) It took a few hours to get the wiper control arms out from the dash. After removing the nuts holding the pivot arms to the underside of the dash, I removed the whole unit through the glove box. (Too many wires, steel, etc to drop straight down to the floor board.) The old gasket was dry rotted and fell apart. Before I took the arm assembly off, I put a piece of tape on the bottom of the pivot arm while it was still installed so that I would be sure that the grease fitting per Jerry's picture #4 in the original post would be in the right spot after reassembly. Be sure to drill in the center of the pivot arm so that your grease fitting will attach snug. (Ask me how I know this.)

After removing the arm assembly, take pictures of both sides of the arms before removing the old bushings. I cleaned my arms and painted them and the next day after drying overnight, I put one new bushing in backwards. Luckily I referred to my digital pictures and realized the bushing was not on properly, and I fixed the problem before putting the assembly back in the car.

As per Jerry's pictures # 7 and 10, the new seal is necessary to prevent water leaking into the dash area. You will need four new bushings which do not come in the Schumacher kit. I bought mine at O'Reilly's in a package of two.

The last thing to do after the arms are reinstalled is to reattach the wiper motor to the arm through the hole in the firewall. The end of the wiper motor that sticks through the firewall has a rectangular piece on the end of the motor that has to be properly positioned with the rectangular groove on the arm. Hold your wiper motor with one hand and rotate it lining up the two rectangular slots. Put them together and place your nut on the end of the wiper motor and use a 3/8" open end wrench and tighten the nut. You can then rotate your motor and install the motor holes through the three studs on the firewall.

Good luck! Just be prepared to spend several hours doing this repair.