'87 TD, wiper stopped, in the rain, on the highway, HELP - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

rickjordan · #1 02-13-2008, 08:33 PM

This morning the weather here in CT was lousy. It snowed last night and then it turned to rain this morning for the morning commute to work. As I am cruising along at 60 mph, the wiper arm, set a the low speed, started to move at a slower pace. Then I started to get a whiff of a burnt electrical smell. I clicked the wiper down to intermittent and the smell started to subside. Then it flat out stopped in the rest position. It's pouring out, in rush hour traffic, I am going 60 and I can't see hardly a damn thing.

A little backround though, as this smell I mentioned and slow speed has happened once before. Last winter my wife was driving the car and the wiper slowed to a crawl and she got this burning electrical smell. I went out to the car at that time and noticed that there was a large build up of ice and snow, seemingly impeiding the movement of the wiper arm. I cleared it out, but the wiperarm was still slow. The next morning, it was working fine.

Back to this morning's issue, there was no ice or snow build up on the windshield or at the bottom of the windshield.

I did not get a chance to check on the fuses, but, how difficult is it to change out one of these wiper motors?

JimFreeh · #2 02-14-2008, 11:41 AM

It's equally likely you have a problem with the geared head that push/pulls the arm. Lubrication failure has caused a number of these to fail.

It's the same amount of work to pull the entire assembly, since you have to pull the wiper mechanism to get to the motor.

Jim

babymog · #3 02-14-2008, 11:48 AM

Should take about 1/2hour, the steps to do so were posted in the past few months, fairly self-explanitory though.

I have a good used one if you need it.

rickjordan · #4 02-14-2008, 03:21 PM

Today it's sunny and I had a chance to look at it. First thing this morning I tried the wiper, no luck. checked the fuse, blown. Replaced the fuse, switched the wiper on and it moved about an inch and stopped. I tried manually help it along. When it did move, I heard a ice cracking sound. Anyhow, I checked the fuse again, blown. I was out of spare red fuses so I removed the one that's for the right front window motor. Again, it moved a bit and stopped.
There is absolutely no ice impieding the swinging movement of the wiper arm. I can only think that somehow water/ice got inside the sliding portion of the wiper arm and is jamming it up. Now, this was first thing this morning, so with it being a bit warmer out, it may work, I don't know. First I have to steal a fuse form one of the other circuits to test it out.

babymog · #5 02-14-2008, 06:09 PM

Start out by pulling the wiper away from the glass into the park detent, so that it doesn't have any resistance.

rickjordan · #6 02-17-2008, 12:57 PM

Wiper is fixed, for now. I searched on how to remove the wiper assy. and tear it down. I took everything apart, cleaned it, and re-lubricated all moving parts. Put it back in the car and she works, without blowing a fuse. However, the movement is not smooth through out the travel across the windshield. When I was taking things apart, I noticed that oen of the pivot points in the linkage had some "slop" in it. Time had taken it toll on it and the hole is large than original. So, I am thinking that this chattering be associated with that. The front wiperblade was replaced on Dec 29. I'll get a new one today, just to rule that out.

Thanks again for all the replies.