Wiper arms and pivots

[timp2]

I have the Factory Five wiper setup, it is installed and works but the fit of the wiper arms to the pivots is a problem for me. The driver side went on ok but not great. The passenger side is a different story. Any advice for arms that work with the pivots that came with the kit? I really do not want to change the pivots at this point. The problem seems to be the internal splines on the wiper arm. I can see where they are interfering with the fine splines on the pivot. I was thinking about removing a couple of the splines on one side of the arm to see if that would give me enough space to get the arm on the pivot. I will wait for some advice before I try this.

[Brian Z]

Sometimes it can be a tight fit. There is also extra material inside the wiper arm sometimes from when the part was cast. This extended material can prevent the arm from sitting down on the wheel box all the way.

http://www.factoryfive.com/images/ffforum/wiperarm5.jpg

Can you get it started on the splines at all?

[timp2]

I scraped the mold flashing off before I attempted to install the arm. I also took a fine file parallel to the internal splines in the wiper arm to make sure that there is not anything to impede installation; it did not help a bit. When I do attempt to install the arm I can see witness marks on the internal splines about 1/16 of an inch from where they should mate with the external splines on the pivot; it absolutely will not go on any further than that. I have tried different positions on the pivot and have tried to rotate it when I am installing it so that it could mate with the splines. Saturday I went to a local auto parts store and tried an Anco arm that is length adjustable as well as blade angle adjustable, same thing. It would only go on as far as the original arm. I tried to put the arm that is on the driver side on the passenger side, again, no go. I tried to clean up the external splines with a very fine very small triangular file and that did not help either.

[timp2]

This is what the inside of the arm looks like on mine. I have removed the arm tension spring and the pivot retainer clip in order to clean up the splines inside of the arm. I don't think that the problem is the arm though, I think the pivot is oversize since three different 1/2" arms do not fit on it. If you look closely at the splines directly opposite the pocket that the pivot retainer clip fits into you can see some flattening of the splines.


5440

[Jason Lavigne]

Hi Timp2,

Can you send over an accurate measurement (with calipers or a micrometer) of the diameter of the external splines on the wheelbox? At this point, it sounds like we may be talking about having to swap out either the wheelbox or the arm, but we should make sure we understand which one is over- or undersized. Best is just to email it over to Jason.Lavigne@factoryfive.com rather than posting it - I'll get it more quickly that way.

thanks!

Jason @ FFR