Akroland

I am rebuilding the wiper system and have a question about the spring on the wiper door assembly. The spring that runs on the rod articulates the system somehow. The movement seems to be frozen as when I move it in the vice (gently) it doesn’t return with the spring pressure. How do I fix? Is it shot? I hope I don’t have to take it all apart as that requires rivet work.

Alan 71

Hi A,
Does cycling the rod that connects to the vacuum actuator move the door mechanism?
You need to hold the brackets that attach the mechanism to the firewall steady in order to see if the door pivots are moved when you cycle the rod.
If it does, then the mechanism and spring are free enough to be used.
Regards,
Alan

BBCorv70

I had exactly the same thing happen to my wiper door mechanism. The outer sleeve under the spring is rather long, doesn't take much rust to cause the mechanism to seize. I freed mine up by driving the sleeve away from the stop, downward, referencing your pictures, to expose part of the shaft. Expose enough to get some penetrating oil in there, then drive it back up. Basically work it back and forth, applying penetrating oil. I also used a pipe wrench to force mine to rotate. Not so sure this was a great idea since it may have twisted the shaft a bit as well. They can be freed, takes time and effort. When operating normally that sleeve should rotate freely, spring doing its job to keep tension. There's no need to remove any rivets, wouldn't help.