RE: Bending the Wiper Arm Assembly on a 164

["John Wiltshire" <John.Wiltshire@domain.elided>]

"The drivers side wiper arm also contacts the hood on my 94 164.  I wonder
if "OEM" wipers would improve the situation.  If you find any easy
solutions, please let me know."


Ian and Rich,

One more thought in this thread that I should have included earlier:

Early on in my 164 ownership, I replaced the complete Bosch wiper blade
assembly with aftermarket Trico ones.  I did this thinking that I would be
easily able to replace just the rubbers rather than the whole assembly.
Although these were good quality, they didn't work as they used a universal
fitting adapter.  This angled the wiper arm up just enough to catch on the
edge of the bonnet.

After a little more experimentation, I adapted the Bosch wiper blade arms
to take Trico rubbers.  Trico now make a narrow blade with the two thin
stainless strips embedded in them similar to OEM blade on newer cars.
These are about $A11 per pair at K-Mart, they are cut-to-size and excellent
quality.

The Bosch wiper blade assembly is not meant to come apart, instead it is
intended that you throw away the whole thing.  If you have a close look at
it, you will see that the hinged sections are held together by small
plastic pins.  It is easy to drill or cut one of these out, then the blade
arm will come apart and the existing rubber will slide out.  The holes in
the wiper arm were 3mm.  I installed the new Trico rubbers (cut to size),
and put the blade arms back together with 3mm nuts and bolts.  (I used
nylon ones from an electronics shop so that the screws didn't wear the
holes out, and also so they didn't rust.)

I can now pull the wiper blade arms off. separate them and install new
rubbers in about five minutes.  Because the wiper arm and the blade arm are
original, they fit under the edge of the bonnet without catching.

Knowing Alfa, I'm sure that the wiper blade assemblies changed several
times during the life of the 164, but you should be able to adapt this
method to suit whatever model you have.

Hope this is helpful!

Regards,
John Wiltshire
Sydney Australia



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