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Windshield Wiper Fix

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
1997 - 2000 S70, S70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70, V70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70-XC
1997 - 2004 C70

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darkstarsinner
Posts: 67
Joined: 11 February 2008
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Windshield Wiper Fix

Post by darkstarsinner »

Okay for those of you driving these older Volvos (and maybe some newer) at some point you may face the same issue I did with my wipers. While driving down the road I hit a bump and my wipers quit working. The issue was that the bolt that holds the wiper arms to the motor came loose. I fixed it but the wipers just didn't work right and kept freezing up. This is a terrible problem and can be very dangerous in rainy situations. So I figured out my issues and now my wipers work better then ever and I would like to share this fix with you.


(I don't have pics for everything so if you do this and take pics, if you'll send them to me I will add them here)



1: The first step is to pop your hood.

2: Look at your wiper arms. There should be one bolt hold each onto their gears. I believe they are 10mm. Once the bolts are off you will need to wiggle the arms untill they pop up. Just be gentle.

3: Just below your windshield is a cover. It runs the whole span of the windshield, surrounds you fuse box, and has a thick rubber weather seal. This needs to come off. There are five star head screws in total around that need to come out. Be extremely careful when pulling this out as there is a black plastic lip that also runs the span of the windshield and is glued to it. Mine was very brittle and the glue that held it to the windshield at one time was none-existant. Once the cover is off you will see the cabin filter (which is a good idea to replace now, an added bonus!!!) and your wiper motor and transmission.

3: There are two foam pads on the gears for the wiper arms. Remove these and set them aside.

4: Now for the removal of the transmission. There are two bolts that attach it to the car. One in the middle and the other at the far right. Once both of these nolts are out, you will need to twist the transmission up and towards you. There is a rod at the left hand side that goes through a bushing. Once you have the right side lifted up you need to slide the assembly to the right untill the rod comes out of the bushing. this may take some muscle.

5: Turn the assembly over so that you can see the transmission arms. There is a single nut holding the arms to the motor. Loosen this.

6: After you have the arms loosened up (don't take the bolt off completely) turn your wipers on and off again. This will put the wiper motor in its intended restting spot.

7: Now for the important part. You need to make sure the arms are aligned properly. Print and cut out the pic below. Use this to align the transmission arms. Once they are aligned tighten the nut back up, making sure not to let the arms move from there newly set position.

Image

8: Re-assemble everything in the reverse order of taredown (a suggestion, Once I got the assembly back in and bolted down I turned on the wipers and sprayed the pivot points with PB blaster. It lubes them up nice and the more they ran the faster they got!). Once you get to the wiper arms you should be able to see their original restting place on the windshield. Hold them in this spot and tighten each nut.

9: Now jump in and start them up. And enjoy your nicely aligned wipers!!!


If the print out above isn't for your car let me know and I can get the appropriate one.

850TurboTurtle
Posts: 279
Joined: 2 August 2011
Year and Model: 96 850T, 05 S80T6
Location: Tacoma WA
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Post by 850TurboTurtle »

Do you have the alignment printout for a 1990 740? I'm helping my son tweak up his car, and here near Seattle solid wipers are essential 12 months of the year.

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