Another gremlin popped up. Installation of the windshield wipers has been a "can of worms" using Mark's terminology. First had to sand the chrome bezel pieces as the angle of the shafts that stick through the body are not 45 deg. Sanded the angle of the bezel pieces so they fit flush with the cowl. Had to also sand the pieces of rubber tubing that fit under the cowl to the same angle. Plus had to make some new gaskets from a black plastic coffee can lid since the ones supplied now were too short for the new angle. Thanks to Mark for the suggestion to use the coffee can lid.
Got everything installed and the transmissions tightened up snugly on the cowl and I thought everything was fine.
Waited until I got the battery installed before I installed the wiper arms/blades to see which side they parked. The wiper arms are bent to park on the passenger side. When I turn the wipers on, the parked on the drivers side. So, I put the arms in the vice and used a large crescent wrench and bent them for the opposite side. No problem, except I didn't notice that the drivers side parked on the drivers side and passenger side parked on the passenger side. So instead of both arms operating in parallel, they were operating towards each other like the wipers from the '50s. What the heck???
Seems during the installation of the wiper mechanism when I had the dash out, I had removed the passenger side transmission. When I put it in, I somehow reversed the transmission so the instead of the cable on the bottom, I put it on the top. Oops. Now the dash is in and access is minimal at best. I've got the pull the passenger transmission out and turn it over (spin it 180deg) so it will park towards the drivers side. I can get to it without pulling the dash as there isn't much on that side except my MSD ignition box. Just have to pull that so I can get my grimy hands up under the dash to get to the transmission assembly.
Here's a pix of the backside of the transmission assembly installed on the cowl.
So the purpose of this post is to make sure both transmissions are oriented the same or the wipers will work in opposite directions. Also, depending on which side you want the wipers to park, you can change that just by rotating the transmissions by 180deg. There is a procedure for changing which side the Lucas wiper motor will park by taking it apart and rotating a gear by 180deg. Unfortunately, if you already have your dash installed and body on, the removal of the wiper motor is almost impossible. It can be done if you take the dash out so you can get to the transmissions and tubing assembly. But that is many man hours. Also, you can change the angle on the wiper arms by bending them the opposite direction if your careful. The arms are made of stainless.
Hopefully, this post will keep others from making the same mistake I did and also the options you have concerning which side the wiper mechanism you want it to park.
Russ
