Wipers Worked Great For A Few Months Then

After the restore, my windshield wipers worked fine on either speed and they self parked when I turned them off. Raining the other day, turned them on and hear a thump/bang and the passenger wiper blade was almost down to the cowl and bound up tight.

I took the motor off and test it and it works fine on lo/hi/park. The linkage to the wipers moves smoothly through most of the operation until I get to the end where the passenger side would be highest on windshield and it is binding but not like I would think as it does cycle back with very little effort. I am basing this on where the motor would be when mounted tight is where it would bind because I cannot get the motor over about 3/8" to allow mounting to line up to bolt holes.

Nothing in the linkage is bent so I don't know why they worked fine for so long and then all of a sudden decided to bind up. It bound up so hard that it bent the wiper connection through the windshield frame to about 1/2" off center. I think I can straighten it if I put a deep socket over serrated part with an extension for leverage. Anybody ever had this issue on binding. Pic below is the psgr side and the dent, dammmit

 

how are the bronze bushings on the ends of the linkage? my 74 one bushing cracked and fell out causing binding.

 

Bushings and everything else still look new. I took entire linkage back out to make sure arms were not bent and they were fine. I was able to straighten where the wiper blade slips on with a deep socket on the end and slowly pushed it back into position. Lubed it, put it all back together, put new switch in and they again work fine with no binding or issues.

One more question that I have seen back/forth on but could not find the thread. If you are sitting in the driver seat are the wipers (when parked) supposed to be far left on the windshield or should they be more like a regular vehicle where the wipers (when parked) are laying down low to the right or bottom of windshield. The way my motor operates is mine park far left. I assume that if I need a different rotation I could reverse (electrically) the way the motor is connected? or maybe not because it is a 3 wire hookup (power,low,high) ground is gained through the motor to windshield frame.

 

park to the right or pass side. the linkage can be installed so they park wrong (180 off) it can also be installed the wrong way at the pivot. is this an aftermarket window frame?

 

It is as aftermarket/foreign as they come. It has always been a contention point when I purchased the Tub/Fenders/Windshield Frame from WillysOverland. I have never thought it was for a 1972 and believed it might be for 1976 etc. I say this because of the angle of the frame, the additional holes in the windshield frame that I will never use nor were on the old one and the fact the Windshield hinges for a 1972 were very difficult to lineup because of their angle to the windshield frame. Not going to worry about it as it works for me and restored it to use on and offroad.

 

how were the bushings? I had one get sloppy and the wipers would bind and stop

 

I had a similar situation years ago when the wiper would "invert" and hit the cowl. For me, it was a combination of worn/broken bushings and the thin metal around the wiper posts deflecting. The fix was twofold:
1) I'm not sure if parts are available for an intermediate frame now but, I purchased a wiper linkage for a 76+ CJ and lengthened it in the middle a few inches so it matched the original.
2) I riveted reinforcement plates about 3" x 3" around the wiper posts, which eliminated the deflection in the aftermarket windshield frame.

It's been working fine for about 18 years now. The only issue is the aftermarket wiper motors don't last too long.