1996 Mazda Protege Wiper problems

BACHMEIER

MEMBER
1996 MAZDA PROTEGE

1996 Mazda Protege 4 cyl Two Wheel Drive Manual 130K miles

Recently my wipers stopped working completely so I took off the wiper arms and the plastic guard that covers the wiper transmission and found that the bushings were shot and had basically just fallen apart. I went to a wrecking yard and found a new transmission in a '98 Protege (mine is a '96), installed it and put the wiper arms back on, but now I just can't seem to get them lined up properly for the life of me.

They seem to want to go WAY below the resting position, like 7 inches or so, which causes them to crash into the plastic guard. I discovered how low they were really trying to go by attaching the passenger side arm about half way up the windshield, turning them on, and marking the resting or "off" position with tape and then marking the lowest point the the blades go to when they are running. It seems like I could make this work but the wiper arms would have to rest quite a ways up the windshield (like 7" up) and that would obstruct my field of view.

This is really frustrating me. Do you think there could be something wrong with the wiper motor? Or could the new wiper linkage be different? (It looks the same as the old linkage and seems to fit on fine, plus the '96 and '98 Proteges had the same body style)

There doesn't seem to be any significant slack in the linkage, and the wipers stop consistently in the same position ever time.

Thank you for your help.

3 Replies

KHLOW2008

MECHANIC
41,814 POSTS

Hi bachmeier,

Thank you for the donation.

Were the wiper linkages replaced?
Did you disconnect the wiper motor pivot arm? If yes, this is where the problem lies. The pivot is now not in the resting position and when the wipers are turned on, it would sweep further down on its travel before coming to the present resting position.

To correct, remove the wiper motor.
Reconnect the wireharness.
Turn ignition ON.
Turn wiper on and then OFF. DO NOT use the ignition switch to stop the wiper motor.
After the wiper pivot arm stops, turn ignition off.
Note where the arm stop.
Disconnect the arm.
Position the arm to the most extended position and reinstall. ( The arm should be horizontal either pointing to the left or right of vehicle, you would need to test to confirm. While testing, do not install the wiper arm firs, just in case the arm is installed 180 degrees from where ti should be and this would cause the wiper to sweep downwards instead of up when it is operated.)
Reinstall to test.