It has been about 8 months since I replaced my wiper blade assemblies. Today while driving in the rain I noticed that one of the wiper blades had begun to tear. Also we were getting a really annoying scraping sound like metal on glass. We safely stopped for the night at a Sam's Club (thanks for the tip Gary Omel) and I began to check the wipers and discovered the the fiber nut had become fairly loose from the long thin bolt.
Fortunately, I had kept the last pair of wiper blade assemblies so I was able to swap out the old for the new. In the next few days I will buy new inserts for both sets of wiper assemblies.
So here is the Alert for Newbies: periodically check the nut and bolt that hold the wiper blade assembly to the wiper arm.
I wonder if the "play" in the connection allowed the wiper blade to wobble side to side thereby causing the tearing and the squeaking sound?
Thank you for this reminder. I hope your windshield was not scratched.
I recently took one of our wiper blades off for replacement. The nut on the mounting bolt had an insert (nylon?) but was very rusty on the surfaces. So I found replacements at Lowe's with the nylon insert (4 for $0.68 + tax). I believe the size on our 97 U270 is M6x0.8. (I am taking that size from memory as I am not at home to check.) I plan to check ACE Hardware to see if I can find the same nut in stainless steel.
How about a picture of just exactly which bolt and nut your refering to....? I just replaced mine and I didn't see a fiber nut??? Maybe mine are different..
Mike
Mike, I think he is referring to the Nylock nut, it has a nylon insert in the end of the nut, sometimes called a lock nut. On my coach there is a small bolt maybe a 8/32 or so that goes through the arm and wiper blade to secure the two, it uses the locknut Nylock nut to keep it all together.
I seem to recall they are stainless, not to rust etc. Last one I replaced was on the MCI coach.
Dave
It's gonna have to wait for better weather. It is cold and rainy here in Clarksville, TN. But, I could have used the wrong term here, Mike. The nut has some sort of insert inside that helps resist vibrations.
Ah, Ha, I gotcha,,,,Thanks for the clarification..... I DO have a couple of those!
mike
Hey George,
Give a big salute to the Screaming Eagles for all of us!