The wipers on my 76 are in bad shape, and I'd like to disassemble completely, recondition and powdercoat them. I have the LH mount out of the car and the wiper arm off. At this point, though, I can't figure out how the main bearing comes apart. There seems to be a cap at the bottom that holds one end and the knurled top that the wiper arm attaches to has a star-shaped end piece. Since most of these parts are not available from catalogs, I don't want to mess them up by not knowing how they're put together. Does anyone know how these come all the way apart? The assembly manual just showed the pieces already assembled.

 

Hi vg,
I love detail as much as anyone.... but.... I don't think I'd chance taking the transmissions apart. I'm very careful about not taking 'press-fit' parts apart because I rarely can put them back together properly.
I cleaned mine and painted them.
Regards,
Alan

 

The problem with mine is that they are so corroded that the bearing surface is sticking very badly. I really don't want to stress the motor by making it work that hard. I do appreciate your thoughts about disassembling press-fit pieces. I have access to a machine shop, though, so I'm not as worried about the reassembly.

 

Hi vg,
MACHINE SHOP... a luxury in my life!
Regards,
Alan

 

What's even better are the experienced machinists who save my bacon when I do something stupid (or help me avoid being stupid in the first place)!

 

Always great to have even minor Gods looking over your shoulder....

 

Well if it helps, I have good used assemblies... might be cheaper and easier than rebuilding the original.... I've taken the 58-62 transmissions apart and the mid years.. but never a 68-82. But for the difference it might be cheaper to just go with a good used set. If interested, give Norm a call on Monday at 800-588-3883 Willcox

 

Update: In case anyone else needs to do this job, here is how my machinist friend and I did it (I didn't have time to take pictures, so I hope the description will make sense if you're holding the parts).

The wiper shaft is held within the cast aluminum housing by a slip-fit cap visible from underneath with a dimple near the center (it looks like an old-time top hat). We clamped the assembly in a mill vise using the rectangular bar attached to the other side and tried to make the shaft as close to vertical as possible, then used a small end mill to remove the top of the slip-fit cap (shaving a few thousands each time). We knew we had gone far enough when the shaft was visible as a center circle within the outer top hat ring (think a top hat open at the top). At that point, we used a drift to knock the shaft out of the end cap and housing. This left two oilite bearings within the housing that were gently knocked out by hammering on a wooden dowel (to avoid gouging the sleeve bearings). At this point, everything was ready for cleaning, bead blasting, powdercoating, etc.

I cleaned the oilite sleeve bearings by a combination of acetone on a rag followed by an ultrasonic cleaning bath. I'm going to put them in a pressure cell with 50 W oil and keep them at a few thousand psi overnight to put some oil back in the pores. The rest of the metal parts will be bead-blasted and powdercoated.

We talked about two options for locking the shaved top hat back on the shaft when everything is done. The easy way would be to TIG weld around the periphery, but this would make it hard to take apart again in the future. I'm going to drill and tap the shaft end, then Loktite in a screw whose head covers the top of the shaved end cap. This will allow it to be disassembled if I ever need access again.

After seeing how crudded up the bearing surfaces were, I'm really glad that I went all the way and disassembled everything. There's no way that spraying solvent would have done much, and the extra drag must have stressed the heck out of the windshield wiper motor (probably why it was burned out when I got the car!).