Steve Arndt wrote:Any pointers are making the wipers more powerful? I cleaned and lubed up the mechanics on my baja. It is a mid 70s body. Everything is adjusted and working but they just are slow and wimpy.
What year is the wiper assembly/motor? The span between the pivots has been the same since 1965, so there's more than one possibility.
In `72 the wiper switch was moved from the dash to the column and the park circuitry rearranged to that used in the VW/Audi waterpumpers - without internal modifications the motors are not interchangeable; if you have the late style motor (with a "pigtail" harness coming off of it) you should be able to find a newer used one from a Rabbit/etc. and change the bellcrank to use it in your Beetle.
The pre`72 motors come in two basic styles - `69 and older were roughly cubical in shape, while `70/`71 (as well as `71 Super) were round and more powerful - essentially the same as the late motors other than the park circuit, which is still the early style - no pigtail, just a row of spade lugs on the housing. If you have either of the round motors and the linkage/pivots aren't binding, you should have no complaints with a healthy motor.
In addition, starting in `70 the wiper pivots were made more robust (and serviceable) and the arms started being secured by nuts instead of the old setscrew arrangement.
All VW wiper motors use "dynamic braking" whereby when the switch is turned off and power is interrupted by cam-actuated contacts when the wipers reach the park position another set of contacts grounds the winding. Some "electronic" wiper switches accomplish this by sensing the current going to the winding, and when it drops as the park position is reached they immediately apply ground to the "power" wire - no need for the extra contacts in the motor with these. Any wiper control setup which does not retain this feature may leave you with wipers that won't turn off on a rainy day, because the low friction of a wet windshield allows them to "coast through" the park position...this is why you shouldn't try to get away with using a simple on/off toggle switch with a VW wiper motor.
A slick way of adding
variable-delay wipers with electric washer pump is the use of a Cole-Hersee switch that came on Bluebird school buses (the downside is its bulk, which makes it necessary to modify the vent box of `68-up Beetles to make room for it. Discussed here:
viewtopic.php?f=54&t=137554
