Date: 23 Mar 1999 02:19:15 GMT From: "J. Pires" <worldnet.piresnopsamdnet.att.net> Subject: Re: Wiper assembly (repairable?) story
Alex... I do the majority of the work myself, and if what I repair fails in a week (Never), I just chalk it up to experience and fix it again. If a shop charged you one to two hours labor to do what you did, they could not guarantee the work, and you would be going back to the shop complaining if it failed again a short time later. As a hobby we have time to "screw around" and take the time to put in fixed like yours, however a shop just wants to fix it and not have you came back for the same problem. On an ending note, I am stripping an 86 900 T SPG and I removed the whole assembly in a few minutes, of course, the engine was not in, but it shouldn't have cost that much for the shop to install a new assembly. Look in the WWW.TOWNSENDINPORTS.COM for an estimate of what the job should cost...great site...support it. Good luck Joe Alex Niedzwiecki wrote: > Recently my driver side wiper blade just stopped moving mid-sweep (while > it was snowing, how do they know?). I had a look, and diagnosed that > the aluminum alloy pully had simply pulled off the steel rod to which it > normally is attached. Thinking that this was just a matter of > re-organizing the small drive cable, and press fitting the two parts > back together, I decided to have a dealer to the work. Seemed like about > .5 hours work, and it WAS snowing. > They (Charles River SAAB- Watertown, MA) informed me that they never > reassemble these parts, and that a complete new assembly was about > $180. Also, the labor was 2.5 - 3.0 hours, bringing the total to close > to $400. > I confirmed with a local independent (Swedish Motor Works, Concord, MA) > who does SAABs and Volvos and got about the same story - although both > parts and labor were about 10%-15% less. > Getting really tired of this story, I decided to do the fix myself. > Result? It took me an honest 40 minutes to remove the assembly from the > car, 15 minutes to evaluate the problem, reattach and readjust the > cable, press the aluminum pully and the steel rod back together (with a > vice, minimal banging - I've broken parts like that before with a > hammer), and about 50 minutes reinstall. The reinstall tripped me up > because I could not get the thing back in there without temporarily > removing the wiper motor from the assemly housing. But other than that, > smooth. > It's been about three weeks, and although I still don't have 100% > confidence that these things will never separate again (it's really > missing a circlip, or some other retainer, in my opinion), I am happy > with the results (and $380 richer). > > Don't get me wrong, I don't think that either garage was trying to take > me for a ride, and in general, I have had good experiences with both > shops. I just wish that these businesses would take a second to really > look at the problem in a more objective (read: less profitable) manner > from time to time without immediately saying, "Whoops, need a new part." > > Hope this may help someone someday. > > Alex
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