Y'all,

In diagnosing my inop rear wiper on my '84 300td, I discovered that two of the three machine screws holding the gearbox to the linkage arm assembly had disappeared (and the third was there only because the linkage held it in place after the ear broke off the gearbox case). I pulled a "good" (I hope) assembly from a junkyard car yesterday, and two of of its screws were missing as well, with the third not far behind. Many other threads have mentioned this, and this one that "callenderevent" sold on eBay had the same problem (note the missing screws to the left and below of the black cover):



Do all W123 300td rear wipers have this problem, and why do folks keep using the damned thing after it starts thrashing around? I'm thinking some Loctite and/or longer screws with jam nuts are in order!

-Shawn