danc24

69 convertible. I went on a day trip with the wife today and got caught in rain for a good part of it. The wipers worked fine at first, but at some point I noticed that the drivers side wiper arm was going way past the windshield over the stainless trim. When I got home I pulled the arm off and discovered that the pin holding the adjustment spring had come out. See pic below. I managed to get the pin back in, but I can't figure out how to reattach the spring. It is tight! I can't budge it with vice grips. Any ideas on how to fix it?

Peterbuilt

The small part at the bottom of your picture is held to the wiper arm with a small rivet in the hole on the right.
The spring goes onto the other hole.
The 'pin' in your picture is broken or one side came out of the hole in the arm and the other end of the spring connect there.

danc24

Thanks. I see how it all goes back together. My problem is that I can't get the spring to stretch any at all in order to clip it back on. Using vice grips and needle nose pIiers isn't working. I was hoping someone knew of a trick or tool to use.

oldboat

perhaps different years are setup differently.
the picture shows how the arms on my '69 are attached.

Peterbuilt

Hi Nick,
You're right, GM changed the wiper arms at some point.
Yours is one of the better ones as you have the screw adjustment on the side of the arm.
My Corvette is a '74 but who knows what year my wiper arms are from.

Hi Daniel,
The factory must have used some kind of special tool as there does not seem to be a way to reconnect the spring by hand.

Maybe something like this?

oldboat

that is a very cool tool.
where did you find that?

DUB

A drum brake tool.

I do have to agree that I have had to deal with many wiper arms that the spring came off an the tension on it is so great I seriously doubt I will try to spend anymore time in trying to cage the spring again when they are available new.

I have tried to use thin cut washers that I can slide in the coils of the spring and get it stretched out and then pull out the washers one at a time ...but the time it takes for me to do THAT...a new one costs lees than my time.

DUB

Peterbuilt

Snap-on #131A, I've had that tool almost 50 years
I'm old and when I started to work on cars they had drum brakes.

danc24

Thanks everyone. I abandoned my efforts to stretch the spring out and just ordered a new one. The stainless windshield trim has been rubbed in a spot that makes me think this has happened before so I don't know that I would trust reusing the same arm again anyway.