I replaced windshield wiper transmission, NOW wipers are off aligned. HELP!

DUHDUH

MEMBER
1994 HONDA ACCORD
200,000 MILES

The windshield wiper motor is running fine, but noticed that wipers not moving, so we noticed that on transmission ball/socket joint the white plastic "push lock on" cap was missing. The arm was slipping off the joint when moving. Bought ENTIRE transmission was the only to fix problem! What the. Swapped out old trans for new one. Put wipers in OFF position and put on the wiper arms in down/ off position. When started wipers first time, the wipers did not move. After shooting on the problem, found that the only way wipers would "work" was to put wipers at 45 degree as the starting or off position, then turn on wipers for only one rotation and the wipers would move down to the bottom (the correct off position) and move up to the very top (as it should correctly do) and then go down and stop at the 45 degree angle position. That was one complete "cycle". So in order for wipers to work because of this misalignment, you would have to drive around in the sunny weather with your wipers at a 45 degree angle or 1/2 way position, right in front of your view, and if it would rain then you could turn on wipers and it would make the above cycle. Not good. I know it was mentioned that in the transmission that the arrow mark on the ball/socket joint should align up to mark. If that makes sense? Is this the problem or did I possibly install the transmission wrong. Motor still works fine. No rain in forecast. :0 Thanks Big Joe

5 Replies

MHPAUTOS

MECHANIC
31,938 POSTS

The wiper motor should self park at the rest position. You must have the arm on the transmission backwards it can go either way you have it off 180 degress.

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Friday, November 15th, 2013 AT 1:39 PM

DUHDUH

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WOW! Thanks for the quick reply and interest in my ploblem. I must confess that my auto knowledge and vocabulary is very small, thus my need to seek an expert like you. Regarding the "regulator" and "reg hooks", I am somewhat confused with these word descriptions. I hope you are refering to the transmission and the bracket arms (the long metal arms) or the linkage arms (THE ARMS THAT ACTUALLY MOVE!) Are what you are refering to. If so, YES you have to disconnect the transmission from the motor to replace the old tranny with the new one. In doing so you have one major ball/soccket joint that connects the motor to the linkage arm. What connects these two parts is a metal piece that on one end has a ball sticking out and the other end is a hole for the bolt from the motor to go into, this metal is about 3 inches long and 2 inches wide. It has an arrow that aligns to the marking on the motor. To disassemble, you take off bolt, washer that connects the motor to tranny. Does this help?

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Friday, November 15th, 2013 AT 1:58 PM

MHPAUTOS

MECHANIC
31,938 POSTS

There are 2 main components, the wiper motor and the regulator, the regulator is the set of metal rods that transmit the motion of the electric motor to the wiper arms, the set up is mount the electric motor and turn on then turn off at the switch and make sure that the motor self parks, that is returns to the same position every time you turn it off, then attach the wiper regulator to the motor with the arms in the rest or park position at the bottom of the screen, if this is done correctly the wipers will start and stop at the bottom of the screen, if not, the motor is out of faze or faulty.

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Friday, November 15th, 2013 AT 2:23 PM

DUHDUH

MEMBER
3 POSTS

TY. I really appreciate your help in clarifying how it should work. The park or rest position is what was tried several times, readjusting it everytime to see if it would operate correctly. The parts are all in working order. I guess my big question is: what is causing the wipers in the rest/park position to go in the DOWNWARD position for ahalf cycle then go UP to the very top (as it should) then come DOWN to rest/park at the halfway mark and NOT in the very bottom rest position? It sounds like something is off aligned. Why does it go down and not Up when it is turned on? Was I suppose to align something up like the arrow I mentioned and the marking? Thanks again.

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Friday, November 15th, 2013 AT 2:50 PM

RICK-ED

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Wipers going down before up. I had the same problem after replacing a wiper motor on an 2001 Cavalier. I needed to readjust the linkage arm on the motor shaft.
I made sure the wiper motor was in its parked position. Then took the nut off the motor shaft and dislodged the short linkage arm from the shaft, then moved the linkage to where the wipers were on the upswing, then reinstalled linkage arm to the shaft and retightend the nut. The linkage was out of sync with the motor.