Wiper blades

[CoryN]

I scored a wiper assembly for my buggy. I don't have wiper arms and I have a couple of questions. Are all wiper arms interchangeable with all assemblies. And if so what arms would be desirable for a Manx type windshield? I'm thinking early beetle with the flat windsheild

[Don]

Are all wiper arms interchangeable with all assemblies.

No, there was an early (60's) small shaft wiper and a later (70's) large shaft wiper. Mine is the early style and I used standard beetle wiper arms. They work fine but they are a little shorter than optimum. I've heard of people using bus wipers but I looked through many bins of misc used wiper arms and never found anything. The year of the assembly is stamped on the motor so you should be able to figure out which year arms you need.

[CoryN]

Ok - I'll look and see what the motor says, although I'm not certain the motor is original to the rest of it, the motor has 3 mounting holes but only two lined up with holes in the rest of the assembly. I think it might be a bit of a frankenstein, but it runs so I can make do.

[jspbtown]

Pep Boys use to offer universal wiper arms that included adapters and could be adjusted to about any length. They also used modern wiper blades. I used them on one kit I had.

Wipers came in 3 different versions.

One is the 6 volt "tin can" style.

Another is the same "tin can" style but is 12 v. I think that was 1 or two years max.

Last is the more modern "motor"style. You can see more a a true motor on this one.

Many times builders use the old style mechanism and add the new style motor. They do this to get the right distance between where the arms mount and a 12v motor. Mostly because getting that old style "tin can" motor in 12v is hard to find.

[CoryN]

How do the arms attach to the shaft? Set screw or something? There is a dimple on my shafts, but it doesn't look like that would be enough to hold them on.

[jspbtown]

They come with a serrated knob that is held on by an allen bolt.

[Bryan Porter]

The old wipers had a set screw and in early I mean 40's and 50's.
I would look for one with the nut to hold it on.

[CoryN]

OK - I got some old wiper arms and blades, but they are no where near long enough. Anyone else have that problem, or are you using something other than beetle arms? I may take these apart and make them longer, they don't even reach the windsheild on the bottom, half the blade is on the hood, windsheild frame on the bottom.

[GregR]

I used arms from my donor '73. I had to A) drill out the rivets and make them slightly shorter and B) twist the very end slightly clockwise (depends on how you're looking at it I guess) so the blade would lay parallel to the bottom of the windshield.
But trust me, you really don't want to drive through the rain without a good top...wipers or no. And that spray that you get off the front tires just can't be beat !!!