The left side is flush with the hood/fender but the right side drops too low when closed (1/4 inch below fender/hood). Is there an adjustment? When open, it appears to be the same height on both sides.

 

Hi m,
This adjustment screw has some effect on the tilt of the door when closed.
There's a white nylon bumper that the bolt head seats against …. make sure it's there.
Regards,
Alan

The adjustment screw and it's hex lock nut.


The bumper.

 

Thanks,...I learned that something is missing, the bumpers. but both are (and I assume there is one on each side).

I think I'm going to end up taking the door off to access under it,..it appears that it's never been cleaned, lubed, etc.

 

The plates the accordion hinge set is attached to at the firewall also have some adjustment. Is your grille flush with the hood? The grille is adjusted by using spacers where it bolts onto the framework. I once had a door that fit so bad, that I had to re-profile the leading edge of the door to match the grille. you should also make sure all the pivot bolts are intact that go from the accordion hinge into the wiper door and all bushings are good....fun job!

 

The grille is okay and the spacing across the glass and the hood seem within reason. It isn't "cockeyed" either. It's almost as if someone pressed really hard on one side.

Slight background. It wasn't as noticeable until I did a hood latch adjustment. Hood wasn't flush and seating too low so after that, the wiper door looked much worse.

I'll delve into it tomorrow. I do know those bumpers alan71 mentioned are not there.

 

That job is not as simple as it sounds. Take a very good look at the existing installation before you jump into removing the door.

 

Hi M,
There's also a small sheet metal bracket attached to the mechanism and cowl on each side of the wiper door mechanism near the adjustment screw that help stabilize the mechanism and door.
Check to see if they're there.
UPC1 asm, Sheet D3, Item 13.
Regards,
Alan

 

Be careful. The bolts on each end that hold the door on have larger heads but small shanks. They break easily.

 

Hi,
62 is really right.
The cross-section of the point the bolt snaps is surprisingly small so it's really no surprise.
Plus, it seems to me the material the door is made from seriously grabs the screw's shank as it oxidizes.
Regards,
Alan

 

Couple of thoughts for you too:

*The four pivot bolts, 2 at each end break off easily as mentioned above.

*Check your AIM, there are 2 white bushings on each of the 4 pivot bolts, very easy for these bushings to fall off when you remove the bolts and go into never never land down between the fender and firewall (now how would I know this??).

*I find the 4 bolts are very difficult to get to with the whole assembly in the
Corvette. For me it is easier to take the whole wiper cover or door assembly out and preinstall the wiper cover or door and then drop the whole assembly in.

*Agree there are adjustment stop screws on each side that rest on the white plastic stops as shown above. My 68 does not have the additional angle sheet metal brackets, but my 72 does, again check your AIM. Where the wiper assembly attaches to the front face of the wiper trough, there are 2 through small bolts on each side and another 2 through bolts set offset to the left in the middle. These small bolts go through the front face of the wiper trough and then through a small backing bracket on the engine side and then are fastened with a small nut. I think before I would take that wiper cover or door off, I would check the AIM to understand how the wiper assembly is supported, get a 3/8" deep socket and loosen these front support bolts and see if you can adjust everything back in line. These front support brackets also have shims on the trough side to help with getting alignment. Of course the picture in the AIM is worth a thousand words here.

Hope this might help and I would not take those wiper cover pivot bolts out unless I tried all of these other adjustments first. And, I wonder if these wiper doors came out of the factory looking perfect anyway, I see Corvettes at car shows with all manner of fit for wiper doors, it is obvious on some that the owners just gave up, LOL's!

 

So, if I understand what your saying is that I can loosen the front side of the assembly and check/use some shims if needed? However, another reason for my madness is that whoever painted the car before allowed overspray and I actually see painted dirt.

 

Yes, and sorry too many words, a picture would help.

Check your AIM for a drawing of how it is put together.

Yes the little through bolts that hold the whole assembly with the 3/8 socket size nuts on the engine side go through oversized holes. So, I would loosen up these nuts and see if you can get enough movement to get the whole assembly where you want it and then tighten it back down.

The AIM will show you where the shims go. The shims are on the inside and you would have to pull the whole assembly out or partially out to add or subtract shims (unless you made or used shims similar to upper control arm shims.

Hope this helps and I hate painted dirt too, ha, had a green metallic painted apple core in a dodge I had long ago, but that was a Mopar product!

 

Oh my,...hey,..nothing wrong with mopar. You know that one car that you still wished you had? Mine is a Plymouth Fury Highway Patrol Car with the 440.

 

Sounds like you're covered but JIC
The entire mechanism can be shimmed back towards the windshield to correct miss-alignment for/aft.
Shims go behind the bolts coming through the firewall (assembly must be pushed back far enough to install the shim, I used those extendable magnet pickup tools to sneak them into place)


Three of them across the firewall

The holes those two bolts go through in the firewall are slotted so you can move the entire unit up/down (and slightly side to side) This should be used for adjustment to make sure the mechanism opens fully and closes a little more than it should. But are mainly there to be able to dial in the grill area between the hood and the door.

The stop screw Alan shows is the final adjustment for door parked position on either side.

HIH
M

 

hmmm....mine is apparently the same...

just another thing! LOL!

 

Hi,
If you're shimming the door mechanism's mounting points you also have to loosen and perhaps shim the mounting points for the actuator's bracket depending on where and how much you're shimming the other 3 brackets.
Regards,
Alan

 

And that's got to be the worst one, I had to pretty much take it out to get a shim in

Keep in mind that's only needed (shimming) to adjust for/aft of the door vs windshield, (and evening out the grill / hood / door gaps) Check Alan's pics for phenomenal gap spacings
M

M

 

Yep!! Much thanks for the photo, a picture is worth a thousand words!

And yes Alan, you are right and thanks, if you shim the brackets, you need to look at the actuator shim too. My fiberglass was cracked and had to be repaired about the actuator I think because maybe of a mismatch here.

And finally, I got pretty proficient at getting the assembly in and out after about 8 times, I finally concluded anybody who could get this assembly installed after everything was freshly painted without chipping something deserved a big hero medal!!!

Oh my,...hey,..nothing wrong with mopar. You know that one car that you still wished you had? Mine is a Plymouth Fury Highway Patrol Car with the 440. COOL MOPAR!!! Unfortunately, mine was a Polara with a Monoco front end (they do interchange, ha, ha!) but the 318 was very good.

 

Might be as simple as one of those plastic bushings (on the outboard mounting points) being worn through and/or missing. But, the 'breaking bolt' thing is a VERY real and troublesome issue. If one (or more) bolts break off, you likely have to drill out the shank. And, when you do, the alignment of that bolt is lost and retapping it may create a binding problem.

You MUST put lots of penetrant on those bolts if you want to have any chance at removing them successfully. And you MUST let that stuff soak over a day or two (maybe with reapplications). Then, you have to carefully and smoothly apply removal torque to each bolt to see if it will come loose using only HAND-APPLIED torque with a nut driver. Using a ratchet wrench will almost always cause them to snap off.

Do everything you can to resolve your problem BEFORE messing with those bolts. And only remove them if that is the only way to solve your problem.

Lastly, if you do snap a bolt off, send me a PM for a suitable method for removing the remaining bolt shank and re-building that threaded hole. Doing it the easy way almost NEVER works.

 

The adjustment screw and hex lock nut: This is missing on both sides on my car. The nylon bumpers are all intact. Do you happen to know the screw size/ nut needed for this?

much thanks.