Headlights and wipers

[Danno]

These all worked for me on my drive to work this morning. I've owned this car for about 8 years. This is a first. Now back to your regularly scheduled show already in progress.

[seabeelt]

Danno, Are they not working now???? Not sure from the post

[4uall]

what this means is that your headlights & wipers carrying case (also known as the car) needs to be replaced

Probably a loose wire/ground.

[Danno]

My bad. you are right. I was vague. These things have never worked until I fixed them. Now I can drive to work in the rain. Today was the first day I've done that. Woohoo!

I had brights previously, and I had low beam on the DS only. I don't know what ended up fixing that dang PS low beam, it might still be intermittent, but I traced the entire line and cleaned its connections and applied dielectric grease.

The wipers have had the same blades since I acquired the car and they were obviously falling apart. If I pulled the arm away from the window they would turn VERY slowly. The other night I liberally applied WD-40 to them and repeated until rust stopped dripping all over my cowl. then I applied some 3-in-1 oil to them. I even bought replacement blades. I got 13" ones, because that's all that walmart had and that's what was on the car. Is that the right size? they seem to not follow the curve for about the last 1/2" so i thought they might be too long. Anyhoo, they work fantastically now, and even in all settings and speeds.

[Danno]

so, to summarize. the original post was about things that are working, not things that are not, lol.

[4uall]

FIAT 124 Spider 1966-1978 (13 inches)

FIAT 124 Spider 2000 and Pininfarina 1979-1985, 131 and X 1/9 all (15 inches)

[Danno]

Seriously? Are you sure about that? I mean I guess that there is a little space it isn't hitting above the wiper, but I'm more concerned about the bigger blade curving like it needs to for this small windshield.
(mines a 1980, I should re-edit my signature to have that in there)

[4uall]

3 vendors seem to agree (as per their website listings)

for other info/specs I like these guys http://www.automobile-catalog.com/

[Danno]

the weird thing is that the Owner's Manual doesn't say a thing about the wiper size. Oh well, they are on there and seem to work fine for now. When they die, I'll try to replace them with something different.

[seabeelt]

13"

[spidernut]

The greatest challenge withe wipers seems to be where they go through the cowling. I found that I got the best bang for my buck when I lubricated the shaft by removing the small o-ring seal after disconnecting the wiper arm mechanism so I could spin it in a full circle until it was moving freely with lottttttttts of lubrication. It doubled the wiper speed!

Congrats on getting them working. It is nice to be able to drive in the rain!

[4uall]

I am curious to know about replacement blades. I saw that Danno had purchased some blades @ Wallymart. I was curious about the attachments (old vs new). It would appear that my wipers require the old style connectors Any advice/thoughts?

[Danno]

two things.

first, I found another pair of wipers in a box with my fiat stuff. they are 15" they look older and maybe original...
second, the connection wasnt a problem. current wipers come ready to install. I can't remember if I used an extra black adaptor, or if it fit before using the extra black adaptor in the box. weither way, it fit. my wiper arms are the older kind as well, they didn't have the little "u" in the end like newer style wiper arms.

[seabeelt]

The ones I have slide throught the wiper arm and have that v shaped clip at one end that holds them in place. Do you have something different?

[4uall]

Guess I need to re-try I will look at some 15's this weekend. She is parked in the garage for the winter so no rush. Just looking to cross off another project. thanks guys