Wiper help

It's raining here in the northeast and I'm out driving around and my wipers stopped working. I have an 86 Ram. I look down in the cowl and find that the arm popped off the motor. I got a new bushing from NAPA and struggle to pop in on through the motor hole only to have the whole linkage fall apart.

First question is, how hard is it to get the cowl off? Do I have to pull the windshield or dose in just sit under to rubber?

The NAPA bushing doesn't even hold the motor to the linkage, do the Doorman ones at Autozone work? I also found some OEM mopar ones on Ebay.

Thanks fellows.

The cowl slips under the rubber windshield gasket and held in place by some phillips head screws above the firewall.

All of the bushings should be the same. I use the Dorman ones. Use a small socket and c-clamp to press the bushing into the arm, then use the c-clamp to press the arm with bushing onto the stud.

Replace ALL of the bushings while you are in there. The others will fail and you will be cussing the truck in the rain. lol


Oh and prepare to give up some blood as the edges of the cowl access areas are sharp.

Awesome! Thanks! I haven't worked on one of these since the early 90's.

I always keep a bottle of Rain-X in the truck just in case.

agree, do them all at the same time. and a touch of grease on the bushings helps them pop back on.

take wiper arms off, remove cowl, unbolt both wiper pivots, pull the whole drive out, replace the bushings on the bench. Way easier than fighting inside the cowl just pay attention to what connects where. Pivots should have a R and L stamped in them, flip em and the wiper stroke is wrong. Doorman sells a box of 10 for cheap on rockauto.