SirRobyn0
Full Access Member
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2019
- Posts
- 6,755
- Reaction score
- 11,402
- Location
- In the woods in Western Washington
- First Name
- Rob
- Truck Year
- 1984
- Truck Model
- C20
- Engine Size
- 305
Newer cars when there is problem with the wiper linkage the solution is to purchase linkage and replace it, but on these old trucks in most cases you can service / rebuild it. Though you can no longer get an entire assembly at your local auto parts store places like LMC do still have them, but it’s not hard to rebuild and make these like new again.
Right off the bat I’m going to mention that doorman makes a rebuild kit, part #49444, they cost less than $10 and are available at your local auto supply store. while it may make the job a little easier it’s not necessary in most cases. If the linkage has broken joints, or excessive slop in any of the joints then the kit is needed, but it will lengthen the amount of time it takes because you'll need drill the rivets in order to replace the swivel joints.
I'm not going to go over removing the linkage from the truck, but I will say this, being careful you definitely can get the cowling off with the hood still on the truck, I say that because some people seem to think it can't be done. You just need to be careful if you care about your paint.
So put the linkage on your work bench. The first thing we are going to is deal with the pivots that come up though the cowling and the wiper arms attach to. These things are greased and sealed from the factory. 40 years later you know most of that grease is gone, or at least well contaminated. Time for a picture.
I'm talking about these.
See where I put a little red circle on the shaft there in the above picture? Your going to take a very small drill bit and drill though the plastic housing carefully. You'll want to drill the side of the shaft that faces downward when it's mounted on the truck. Do it slow and gentle the goal here is to get though the plastic, but not to go into the shaft. It doesn't matter what the exact size is, but it needs to be a size your needle greaser will work with. The plastic isn't very thick either. Your better starting to small, you can always make the hole bigger, but you can't make it smaller. Once you have your hole drilled take your needle greaser, you can use one of those bar greaser tools for your chainsaw or needle greaser you attach to your grease gun. It's very likely that your shaft will take a couple of pumps of grease, but it's going to take the grease slowly so you'll want to wedge the linkage against something or put it gently into your vise. Put the needle greaser in the hole and start putting grease in slow and steady pressure on your grease gun handle and the grease will go in slow, eventually you'll see the old grease being pushed out and then the new grease. By putting the hole close to the center you should see the grease come out both ends of the shaft.
Now you need to seal up the holes. I like to use JB weld. Just clean the grease off the outside of the shaft, rough it up with a little steel wool, apply the JB weld make sure not to push it into the hole. Remember we want to seal off the grease hole, not fill it, if you did that it might get on the inside shaft and mess it up.
Next the linkage joints. I'm talking about these:
From the factory they are riveted, that doorman kit I was telling you about includes new cups as well as nuts and bolts, but you'd have to drill the old one out. It's not hard, but it is a bit time consuming. If your joints aren't excessively rusty or loose I'd recommend lubing them without removing the cups. There was one joint on my truck that was a bolt together unit so I did unbolt that one to lube it. Here's what the bolt together joint looks like.
For that joint I lubed it with sil-glyde, just by taking it apart cleaning the joint and sticking fresh stuff in there. For the riveted joints there are a couple options. One thing you could do is just to shoot them with a penetrating grease and hope it gets in there and stays in there. Though I do keep penetrating grease on hand I have terrible luck with the stuff so what I did was turn the joint so the ball shaft is facing up I packed around it with some cheap grease I had on hand and hit it with my heat gun until I saw it melt into the joint. I did a couple applications of grease for each joint. I would have preferred to use the sil-glyde but it has a melting temp of 400F and most of the lower quality generic clearish yellow grease for zerk fittings has a much lower melting point IDK for sure the exact temp but that cheap stuff for grease guns melts fine for stuff like this with a heat gun.
That's it. Reassemble back on your truck, wash the windshield, and clean or replace the blades and you'll have get many more years out of your linkage.
Questions, comments, think I missed something, let me know!
Right off the bat I’m going to mention that doorman makes a rebuild kit, part #49444, they cost less than $10 and are available at your local auto supply store. while it may make the job a little easier it’s not necessary in most cases. If the linkage has broken joints, or excessive slop in any of the joints then the kit is needed, but it will lengthen the amount of time it takes because you'll need drill the rivets in order to replace the swivel joints.
I'm not going to go over removing the linkage from the truck, but I will say this, being careful you definitely can get the cowling off with the hood still on the truck, I say that because some people seem to think it can't be done. You just need to be careful if you care about your paint.
So put the linkage on your work bench. The first thing we are going to is deal with the pivots that come up though the cowling and the wiper arms attach to. These things are greased and sealed from the factory. 40 years later you know most of that grease is gone, or at least well contaminated. Time for a picture.
I'm talking about these.
You must be registered for see images attach
See where I put a little red circle on the shaft there in the above picture? Your going to take a very small drill bit and drill though the plastic housing carefully. You'll want to drill the side of the shaft that faces downward when it's mounted on the truck. Do it slow and gentle the goal here is to get though the plastic, but not to go into the shaft. It doesn't matter what the exact size is, but it needs to be a size your needle greaser will work with. The plastic isn't very thick either. Your better starting to small, you can always make the hole bigger, but you can't make it smaller. Once you have your hole drilled take your needle greaser, you can use one of those bar greaser tools for your chainsaw or needle greaser you attach to your grease gun. It's very likely that your shaft will take a couple of pumps of grease, but it's going to take the grease slowly so you'll want to wedge the linkage against something or put it gently into your vise. Put the needle greaser in the hole and start putting grease in slow and steady pressure on your grease gun handle and the grease will go in slow, eventually you'll see the old grease being pushed out and then the new grease. By putting the hole close to the center you should see the grease come out both ends of the shaft.
Now you need to seal up the holes. I like to use JB weld. Just clean the grease off the outside of the shaft, rough it up with a little steel wool, apply the JB weld make sure not to push it into the hole. Remember we want to seal off the grease hole, not fill it, if you did that it might get on the inside shaft and mess it up.
Next the linkage joints. I'm talking about these:
You must be registered for see images attach
From the factory they are riveted, that doorman kit I was telling you about includes new cups as well as nuts and bolts, but you'd have to drill the old one out. It's not hard, but it is a bit time consuming. If your joints aren't excessively rusty or loose I'd recommend lubing them without removing the cups. There was one joint on my truck that was a bolt together unit so I did unbolt that one to lube it. Here's what the bolt together joint looks like.
You must be registered for see images attach
For that joint I lubed it with sil-glyde, just by taking it apart cleaning the joint and sticking fresh stuff in there. For the riveted joints there are a couple options. One thing you could do is just to shoot them with a penetrating grease and hope it gets in there and stays in there. Though I do keep penetrating grease on hand I have terrible luck with the stuff so what I did was turn the joint so the ball shaft is facing up I packed around it with some cheap grease I had on hand and hit it with my heat gun until I saw it melt into the joint. I did a couple applications of grease for each joint. I would have preferred to use the sil-glyde but it has a melting temp of 400F and most of the lower quality generic clearish yellow grease for zerk fittings has a much lower melting point IDK for sure the exact temp but that cheap stuff for grease guns melts fine for stuff like this with a heat gun.
That's it. Reassemble back on your truck, wash the windshield, and clean or replace the blades and you'll have get many more years out of your linkage.
Questions, comments, think I missed something, let me know!
