Wiper arm length?

How long is your wiper arm? That is, asumming
A; you're not a Californian (like me) who's taken them off
B; you're a dummy (like me) who hasn't fixed them while it was sunny and nice and waited for a rainy day like today to get caught at work fixing them in the warehouse.

Mine are about 10" from centerpost to arm-end, with a 10" wiper blade. I've done some bending, some re-aligning on the posts and had them all over the place from 'can't make it over the windshield rubber' to 'bottom hitting the rubber on the throw side and bending up' to 'they work but are parked right in the middle of the windshield'.

I think I got the wrong thing going here. Advice or photos? I've gone through the archives and found some info, but stumped. I need to devise one of those cool Mercedes-type mono-blades that rides a track and covers about every inch of the windshield. Maybe when it's sunny again...

i have a 2000 VS. the blade is 10" but the metal arm is 9".

Jarco, As VW made 3 or 4 diff. wiper set-ups it would help to know what year your's came from(which is pretty difficult). I went through this drill a few years ago.
My arms are held on with a cap bolt(13mm wrench) and are 9 inches long. They are for a '70-'72 Beetle.
'68 and after Beetles had different arms left and right.
The right(passenger)side arm is straight and the left(driver) side has a bend in it a couple inches from the hook.
The straight arm is no good for the Speedster because the wiper blade goes over the top of the w/shield frame. So I ended up using two left(drivers) side arms which work perfectly. The bend in the arm was the trick.
The arms I got are Bosch and I had to get them from the local foreign car parts store. They came painted silver, which is the correct color. A 10" blade is used on both.
You can sort of see them in this pic.(Please disregard the "shiny" spot near the center of the picture)

~WB

Oh geez!!! I need my sunglasses!

My JPS wiper blades are 10 inches long. The arms mounts at the center of the blade. One arm is 8.5 inches long and one arm is 9.5 inches long (blade pivot to body mounting).

But here is the kicker: Neither arm is straight! Looking down on the arm, the outer half of each arm (blade end) is bent in a gentle arc, resulting in the blade pivot point being almost 45 degrees from where a straight arm would normally be. I do remember fine tuning these bends to contour the wiper blades perfectly to the windshield base - as you seem to be attemptying to do. Don't be afraid to move some metal to achieve a good fit.

The next problem is I don't know which arm is drivers and which is passenger side. I took both wipers off the car years ago and don't even use them anymore. They did work just fine and did cover a good area of the windshield before removal. They just needlessly blocked my vision here in rainless southern Cal.

But you're probably looking for those blades this week, aren't ya David!
So it sounds like it's just a matter of bending the things until they work. I did that a little, but I didn't bend both of them so that's a good clue. Still, seems if the arms were longer they would work better. I'll keep trying.

I had to make up my own wiper arms I uses a 72 up arbour's that have the chrome nut a 72 super arm and the 70 ghia 10inch blades I had to increase the spring tension to make them hold up tight to the glass and re bend the ends, but the fit and look nice.

I never liked the set screw arms so i upgraded..

I think I have some physics to do in the garage this morning. As Bill pointed out, it would be nice to know the year of the arms, etc. but my only clue on that one is the donating pan is a 70 VW; little or no help at all there, the wipers could have come from anything at anytime of my car's life.

What's puzzling to me is the arms seem too short on the 'throw' (not parked) side. When they're parked I can get them to any adjustment of course. On the throw side the bottom of the blade is hitting the bottom of the windshield, and I got another inch or two at the top of the windwhield for the 10" blade. I don't see how a bent wiper arm is going to make that much differenece. One arm is straight and the other is already bent, and neither of them work right.

I'm going to search the photo gallery for windshield close-ups. If I find one, hopefully that car's wiper work!

Jarco:

Take off one of the wiper arms and take it to a NAPA store. Try to catch them at a time when they're not inundated with customers and ask them for an arm with the same base but an inch longer (or whatever length you think is right). Tell them it's from a custom and that's all. That will force them to get out the paper catalogs, rather than use their computer, and they should be able to find one for you.

DO NOT go to an Autozone, Advance Auto or Pep Boys, as all they can do is use the computer for look-ups and probably won't be able to help you.

My wiper hubs are not VW, but the arms are 9-1/2" long from the center of the hub to the end of the arm, and the wiper blades are 9" long (just the rubber blade part - the blade carrier is 9-1/4" overall). BTW: My arms are from NAPA (Trico) and have an adjuster on the end such that I can change the angle of the blade from straight versus the arm to angled versus the arm. That made a big difference in getting the blades to fit the windshield shape.

Both sides are the same lengths. I have an inch or so between the blade and the windshield frame, top or bottom.

Hope this helps.....gn

Yep, Gordon, I think that's the answer. My arms are about 8.5" with a 10.5" blade... just too much for the car. No bend in any complex manner's gonna make a fit here.

Does VW have a 9.5" arm? How long are VS 'stock' in their parts drawer - of course I can call them on Monday and find out.

Amazing you have all those figures in your head; either that or you're a really super guy for going out and measuring all this to help me out. Well you've done it before, so I'm guessing the latter - thanks again Gordon!

Here's a few pics I took on my CMC Flared car.
Bosch VW Left(drivers side) 9" arms w/ 10" Bosch blades used on both sides.
~WB

...one more pic.

Forty years ago I could keep all those figures in my head (and did) but lately I have to actually go out there and measure stuff. Along with always putting tools back where they belong or spending countless minutes looking for the damned things. Can't imagine how much fun it's going to be in another 30 years......

Gordon
The thoughtful "Speedstah Guy" from Beaufort...

BTW: It shouldn't matter whether you have a VW hub or not (I think Barry alluded to that already). All that matters is what the hub looks like (it's size) and the length from the center axis of the hub to the wiper blade, and then the length of the wiper blade itself and whether the blade is offset (it should not be on a Speedster windshield).

For instance, my wiper system is from Specialty Window in Texas, but the hub is an English (not metric) version of the VW hub. Just a slightly different size, that's all.

You can contact VS, but going to NAPA would probably be just as good. NAPA doesn't care if it's from a VW, Mercedes or Opal - all they care about is the size/configuration and they should be able to find one in their catalogs (if the counter person is worth his/her salt).

I didn't have the wiper problems you guys have had, my Vintage Spyder came with wipers that fit and work.

But I do concur with Gordon about NAPA. Countless non-standard or custom parts from that store are on my car. Seems to be the last of the old-school parts stores, less than 5 miles from my house. If they don't have it, they can get it in a day or two tops.

My wipers work just fine, but the rubber blades can't be found locally, and the refills that include the metal parts won't fit the arm. I tried extracting the rubber part only, but that didn't fit either. I guess the Mexican/Brazilian arm is just a bit different. For that reason I'm thinking of replacing the whole arm - if I can find one that works. In the meantime, Carey is sending me some new blades, cuz mine are a bit dried out.

Anyone have a part number of cross reference for the wiper blade and arm? My old 1991 CMC kit came with a NAPA arm 51-255N and 225mm blade, but a bit difficult for me to track down from Thailand. Is this a valid NAPA number and what to use for a blade?

Still looking for a wiper arm other than the 50.00 one from VS
See this for a wiper arm PN:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-Speedster-550-Spyder-Silver-Wiper-Arm-Set_W0QQitemZ220329056212QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item334ca297d4&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245

Wonder what the blade looks