The Tale of the Wiper Linkage

Oh, did I ever mention that I was in Chess Club in Jr High?

I had to drop out after a couple weeks because I wasn't "cool" enough to hang with those guys.

That was until I found girls, surfing, and cars, not necessarily in that order

 

Facelessnumber, (Man I wish I had a name for all the folks on this forum) I had the same HORN ISSUE after dropping and re-installing my column. I had pinched a wire and randomly while turning (only to the right, go figure) the horn would honk. "NOT TO GIVE ADVICE ", but I would look for this situation.

 

Yeah I laughed a bunch but not laughing at you, laughing with you brother. Been there!

 

Name's Drew. :Handshake I use this name on all the forums I get into so I don't confuse myself... Doesn't really fit much with the car forums I guess. More in line with the coder/Linux/geek ones. (Yeah, I'm one of those...)

Anyway, I too only have this problem when I turn right. I THINK I fixed it last week, but not really sure. It hasn't happened again but it's not unusual for it to go away for a few days. I will drop the column again and look for pinched wires if it comes back.

Looks like my next project is a heater core swap. I really hope it doesn't end up as another story like this one...

 

My horn did the same thing, but eventually became once-in-three turns. So I couldn't leave my driveway without HONNNNNKKKKK!!!

Mine was just from installing and removing the horn/wheel assembly too much, and the shouldered nuts that let the horn contact float above the electrical part started to wear down letting the horn contact float too close to the electrical part. I just loosened it up a half turn on all 3 bolts and it is fine now. Not sure if you have the same kind of assembly. Mine is a grant wheel.

Heater core...ooooohhhh! nasty job. But I hate anything under the dash.

 

Yeah, we have exactly the same steering wheel, and (I think) I just fixed it with some lock washers. We shall see.

By "nasty job" do you mean "wiper linkage and brake light switch" nasty, or just "filthy" nasty? 'Cause I would rather pull the engine than do that again. I'll just make a campfire in the passenger seat if I need a heater.

 

More like the "wiper linkage" nasty. Not too dirty of a job, just might get some dust knocked loose into your face. Of course, you will be upside down, laying on your back, with both hands holding that wrench in a very unlikely position, so you won't be able to wipe your eyes clean...

It was one of the first jobs I did. I ended up just taking everything out. Still was a nasty job, with dash parts all over the garage for about a week.

A bit easier if you take out the front seats. Just gives you a little more room to work.

 

As you realize, any work done under the dash in a Mav is tough. To put it in perspective, I had a 71 Torino, and with the usual gymnastics of being upside down, you could get to anything. Easiest under-dash work I have ever done. Mavs and Comets have half the available space and very similar components packed in there.

I replaced the heater core in the Torino with A/C ... fairly tough job.

I replaced the heater core in my first Comet (non-A/C car) ... probably 50% worse than doing the Torino.

When it came time to strip the A/C and heater core out of my current Comet, I did not care about being neat about it. Both had failed and if it gets air again, it will be aftermarket.

It was hideous ... halfway through it, I started thinking that this must have been what it is like to pull a molar out of a T-Rex.

I would think really hard about removing the dash if I were to do this again in an A/C car.

 

hahaha...

you know what is so twiested about this story... it has happened to me.. not the wipre motor, but a chain of events of fixing 10 things just to fix one small little thing..

glad you got it all worked out.. but you know whats good about it... you now know more about your car than you did before..

 

had pinto wagon back in the 80's.. summer night left the windows down, 230 AM
Woke to the sound of a horn blaring, sleepy eyed go to the kitchen for a glass of water , I look out window (hmm wish that idiot would get the car alarm shut off)..tht horn , oh it's raining.:16suspect.... Hm its raining.. (why is that horn still blaring outside)... OH it's raining... and its in my car.. run out in my underwear pouring rain horn blowing so it is hot to the touch , pulled the cap off to get it to stop..

Don't leave the windows down no matter how nice it seems when you go to bed , a word of DUH advise

 

Oh and no one has to take that advise it is from an amatuer.. LOL

 

facelessnumber had it right,earlier on in the thread. I made a tool for the parking brake cable clip,but there is no tool known to man that will remove the wiper motor. MANY unmentionable words are the tool for this! I believe when Ford engineers go to hell,that they should have to replace this forever!!!!

 

They do make a tool for removing the wiper motor...it's called a 1/2" ratchet wrench. I removed my wiper motor less than 15 minutes from the time I walked out the back door to the time the wiper motor was laying on the driveway.

 

i have not seen ANY car ever in my life where you could remove a wiper motor in 15 minutes. well except those cars cool enough to be able to remove the entire rain tray assembly... but then the wiper is still installed into something.

i want to thank you though for this thread. because my driver side wiper is out of alignment and its been bugging me for the last week. you just convinced me to let it be.

i installed the wiper with the blade upside down so that it would function better because it was making poor contact with the window on the upstroke.