Thinking of reversing wipers. Read AJ's DIY on Robin's site and I'm curious to hear from those who have done this. Pros, Cons! Do the wipers still sweep as far down on the drivers side as they previously had ? TKS!

 

From my fast review of the archieves, this is a PITA project AND there is an issue with altered sweep and clearing ability after the reversal.

Better solution...Remove wiper relay #42 from relay box in trunk. Wiper will no longer intermittant cycle but you can now manually stop its cycle on the right side. Oh what an improved sight...actually seeing the hood.


Tom

 

Wow Tom - good idea. I don't drive in the rain anyway and that's a whole lot easier than the reversal. I would just take them off, but one can never be sure of the weather (especially around here)

 

Tom, that's a great tip! Thanks.

 

Hey,Great idea!! This way I can see if its worth the effort and maybe do it the next time I'm changing pollen filters. TKS PT

 

I was going to do this DIY one weekend figuring how hard could it actually be? Well, the pollen filter housing is simple to get to and the DIY write up is clear enough but that nut that holds the wipers in position is IMPOSSIBLE to get to. You’d need five-axis baby-sized arms with Schwarzenegger’s grip to reach that nut. I thought that, given enough time, I could figure out how to loosen the nut but I only came away bleeding and bewildered. If anyone actually did the DIY, I’d love to hear about it.

Jef

 

Ok... so at the risk of sticking out as a diy fool... I did this one. What a pain in the butt!!! So, the write up didn't quite work for me... there was no way of getting to the nut through the front trunk area over the pollen filter... period. I was just about to say phooey on it when I decided to look for other ways to get there. Now, I drive my 993 about 70 miles per day, 5 days a week, and almost 50 weeks a year, and the thought of seeing that fat, red, bulging fender stick up in my line of sight instead of those boring, ugly, black wiper arms was just too much to pass up. So I started pulling dash gauges. Lo and behold, with my left arm through one gauge hole with the appropriate wrench, and the right arm through another as a "locator" hand (I'm working blind in there)... there it was! The elusive retaining bolt. So how hard could this be right? I'm on it!!! Ok, now this is easy, slip the wrench on, give it a little turn... voila! It's loose!!! (In Monty Python style: And there was much rejoicing... yeaaaah.)

Now, there probably isn't much need for me to go through the next grueling few hours of my life. Just think, loosen, turn spline, tighten, wipers stop in middle of windshield, repeat... repeat... repeat... repeat... (Keep doing this in your head for at least an hour and then come back.) After about 20 attempts, I started getting really good at feeling how this sucker was working. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, don't get lazy and leave your hands in there when you test out your handy work... that motor, spline, wiper assembly, or something WILL try and cut your stupid, blind, little fingers off when it starts whirring around in there.

Finally it got close... real close. Too close for me to give a damn about perfect anymore. So the wipers stop at a nice, low position on the right side. When you hit the start again, they dip about 1/4 inch then go up through their cycle. Ah... I can live with that. (At this point I would normally start on beer, but stronger medicine is in order.)

On to parking position. So now that they are reversed, they park high on the right, and sweep unnecessarily low on the left. To remedy this, loosen the bolts on the base of the wiper arm assembly which now lets the motor arm freewheel in there. It doesn't affect your parking stop position... do you really think I'd have gone through all that if it did?... but it does change your resting position. Just lower your arms (not the ones all cut up and bleeding... the wiper arms) to a nice low park position and tighten.

CONS: An oil change on a 993 is a 1 band-aid job. Spark plug r&r is a 2 band-aid job. This job, for me, was a 4 band-aid, 1 bottle of antiseptic, 1 tetanus shot, 2 Alleve, and 1 tourniquit job. Not to mention the last 3 Sam Adams in the fridge and a few shots of Jack to finish things off. Besides that, the wiping has one real downside... following the wipe, you don't have the arm to "hold" the water down out of view, so as you drive it immediately runs back up in your line of sight. Not annoying, but a consideration if you are easily bugged by that kind of thing.

PROS: I LOVE the view now. Ever since my fingers healed up from the operation I have just loved that I did this job. If you think you would enjoy looking out and seeing a tad bit more of your car as you drive... this is the one.

And finally... this is my backwards wiper car amidst a sea of "lefties." You've been warned.

 

I'll be pulling my #42 relay and be done with it. Good enough for gov't. work.

 

Greatly appreacheated BS911 commits. Being an AR kind a guy, I like everything to still work as published (IE: int wipe) . I think I'll still go the relay way as a test. If I like the effect, I'll start busting my knuckle's.

 

Excellent write up from BS. This mirrors my experience almost exactly. I actually did somehow manage to do it from the trunk side. Never thought of trying to go through the dash. I love the difference however. Great improvement in the view - both in the bigger field of vision and the glimpse of the hood. Took a few days for my hands to recover. Might help to have a kid do this - but I don't know if hands small enough to fit would be strong enough.
Of course its nice to know that there are some mods which will remain a little more exclusive.

 

The wiper in front of my face never really bothered me until I put SRD's in my car... now I sit an inch lower and it seems like the wipers are the only thing I see. I'm heading out to pull the #42 relay... I only use the wipers for when I'm caught out in the rain, which is a rare occassion

 

I pulled relay #42 to give it a try. The problem I had was that the extent of travel of the wiper blades was not enough to put them down really far on the passenger side.

I hope this make sense if not I can take a photo and you can see what I mean.

Is there a way to increase the limit of travel when the blades go to the passenger side of the vehicle?

 

Ron,

I noticed the exact same thing. The wipers are very high up on the windshield.

I would venture to guess that the only way to get them lower is to adjust the retaining nut. But if you're goint to do that, you might as well move them permanently.

I'm going to leave them on the right and see how much I like the new look. I had tried to move them, got the pollen filter out and all, but could hardly *see* the retaining nut, let along get to it.

We'll see...

 

I never drive my car in the rain, so I just took the wiper arms off and tossed them in the trunk. I figure I've gained about 2 mph in top speed, and .05 mpg.

 

hey Guys - is it not possible to remove the relay and then re-position the arms on the spindle (to make them rest lower on the passenger side)? This would be a thousand times easier than adjusting the nut in the "trunk". They won't go down as far on the drivers side, but most of us don't drive in the rain anyway, and that seems better than going to the trunk for wiper blades in case we get stuck in sudden summer shower. I'm at the office now, but I'll try this later this afternoon and see what happens.