wiper linkage problem

[jgold47]

fucking wipers died in the middle of today's meteorological nonsense. was able to get into a parking lot, pop the hood and my center nut was almost completely off... I tightened it the best I could in the pouring sleet, and got back to the office. Just as I pulled in, they stopped again. I'll take another run at the nut, but what are the chances that something is stripped?

Does the tab that connects the wiper arms to the motor have a key of some kind that has to be aligned or does it either fit or not? not to mention they are stopping at 12 O Clock and need to be completely re-aligned regardless.

and did I mention I dont really have a garage I can use...

[BigBlack48is]

I feel for ya man!!

I think you need to loosen that nut and cycle your wipers using the wiper lever, then power everything off and align your wipers to resting position and the tighten that nut ( or replace the nut and bolt if stripped )

What area in MI are you in?

[jgold47]

an update for those searching.

The spindle nut that holds the linkage to the motor had worked itself loose. I'll chalk that up to the design from BMW (this is a known issue) and the fact that I cleared about 2" of wet snow off the window.

I replaced the nut with a lockwasher (mine didn't have), and some blue thread lock, so I should be good. I had to reset the linkage position using the instructions available on this website (remove linkage, reset wiper by pulsing once, separate linkage, connect and tighten, then re-attach linkage).

I also realized looking at pictures of other peoples windshields that my passenger wiper arm was way out of wack. this was a little disconcerting, as I don't think that's really possible short of removing the wiper arm and reposition it, but I did that and repositioned it in the correct location and gave everything a good snugging up (which also effects the pressure on the window I realized....so check yours).

I used a 13mm on the spindle nut, a 17mm on the wiper arm nut, and I think a 10mm on the plate that holds the linkage to the motor assembley which is the other place the nuts back off, although mine were fine.

Hope that helps.

[puddinboo]

maybe using blue lock tite would help also