NS F355 Project (Page 34/73)
Yarmouth Fiero NOV 11, 11:18 AM
Happy Remembrance Day to all the Veterans and Active Personnel of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Thank you for your service to our Country.
RCR NOV 12, 06:58 AM
Love your attention to detail and the fact that you post it.



Bob

PS, I like your poppy reference. I just read about it yesterday.

Yarmouth Fiero NOV 17, 08:59 PM
I continued work on the new wiper linkage this week once I had gathered up the bits and pieces I needed.

As I noted earlier, I am replacing the stock linkages with 316 SS tubing that is 3/8" OD x 0.049" wall. Its plenty stiff for the this duty. I am also using the 316 SS ball pivot joints for the ends of each linkage. I purchased some 316 SS 1/4" - 28 x 1 1/2" bolts which I removed the heads and then inserted them into the ends of the tubing linkages. They are a perfect fit and once I have finalized everything, I'll tig them in place.



They screw into the pivot joints and I added 2 thin jam nuts to help keep it all tight once installed.



For the center linkage pivot arm, I used a length of 316 SS 1" x 1/4" flat bar. I used a small sealed bearing (SKF 627 RS) and fabricated a support from a piece of 1" x 0.065" wall SS tubing. For the picture, I fitted a 1/4" bolt through the bearing but I'll have to machine a proper fitting bolt to fit the inner race. Once its all complete, I'll tig the bearing sleeve to the pivot arm.











I mocked up the entire linkage assembly just to see how it looks. The linkage rods are a few inches too long at this stage. Once I have everything finalized, I'll post the final linkage dimensions.







Here is a picture showing the stock drivers side wiper pivot and the new loaction. The outline of the extended windshield can be seen as the black marker line. Clearly, the stock location was going to be under the new windshield.



The next step will be to fabricate mounting plates for the wiper pivots so that they can be secured to the sheet metal. The reason for the mounting plates is that the stock location for the pivot was reinforced and the new loaction is just thin sheet metal. Here is a rendering of the mounting plate with the pivot mounted through it. I'll fabricate these from 1/8" aluminum plate and powdercoat them black.
Bloozberry NOV 18, 12:32 PM
Nice work Graham. Have you chosen your wiper arms yet? The stock Fiero arms obviously won't be long enough, as I'm sure you realize. Before you inextricably integrate the old Fiero wiper hub assemblies into your design, it might be wise to make sure that any new wiper arms have the same spline size and count as the Fiero hubs.
355Fiero NOV 18, 02:46 PM
Looks good Graham;

A couple items for you to think about when putting this together. I like the rod ends as well. I think I will be looking for those vs. the ones I used on my setup.

1. wiper arms. I was not able to find wiper arms that fit the Fiero hubs. I took the Fiero wiper arms and unhooked the spring and pulled the arms out of the bases. I then got some Neon wiper arms and took the arms out of the Neon bases. I mated the Neon arms into the Fiero bases and needed to drill a hole in the end of the Neon arm for the spring and also a hole into the arm to allow a rivet to go through everything to hold it in place. The Neon arms work perfectly and put the wiper connector in the middle of the screen height wise. I then bought 26" wipers to fit to the new arms.

2. When locating the hubs and the cross over arms, you may well find equipment in the way such as A/C dryer etc. I ended up with some bent arms on my setup to go around all the trunk equipment. That is where your rod ends will be better than mine where the rubber pieces will keep the arms up where they need to be where mine hang down.

3. The new locations of the wiper hubs will be outside the window screen tray. be aware though that the screen tray now covers your cowl inlets so there will be a deficit of air availability into the HVAC unit. I ended up cutting some 3" holes into teh cowl sides on the outside of the cowl area, just outside the hubs and welded in a 3" tube with screen over it on each side to provide some inlet air as well as keep water out for the inevitable wet days you get caught in.

4. I had to move my wiper motor over to the passenger side as well as there wasn't enough room to leave it where it was with my setup. Mine different than yours though as my passenger wiper is in the middle vs. the side like yours. I sealed up all the wiper holes in the cowl as well to keep the front trunk sealed off from the cowl.

5. I am not sure, but I think you are planning to push the passenger wiper arm though the cowl? If you are, you need to know there is a barrier over on the passenger side on the inside of where your arm will need to go to get to the passenger side hub. I ended up turning both my wiper hub arms around to be accessible in the front trunk to remove all mechanisms from the inner cowl. Once the tray is on there, you won't have any access to any of it as you seal the screen tray over the cowl as I stated above.

Have a look in my 288 GTO build thread on madmechanics if you are not sure what I am saying with anything above. I can also send pics if you need.

I am looking forward to seeing how you set it all up in the car.

Cheers
Don
Yarmouth Fiero NOV 18, 04:09 PM
Thanks for the input Blooz and Don. To be honest, I assumed the arm pivots had a somewhat " universal spline" atleast as far as GM products go. I was going to pop the wipers off my Colorado and see how they fit. I will make sure I have found a suitable arm and blade arrangement before finalizing the installation.

With regard to the location of the mechanism, I am planning on running them through the same location as the stock linkages. As well, my car has no air conditioning so I don't have anything inside the cowl. I am aware that the passenger side has a barrier and I am just working on a way to gain access, similar to the drivers side. There is a nice big access panel on the drivers side from inside the dash.

My plans for getting more air into the hvac plenum is to duct the 355 front hood vent through the front firewall. Again, I have no AC so there is not much there to get in the way.

I have mocked everything up and I don't think I'll have to move the wiper motor. One thing I do have to do but have not mentioned yet is to cut the stock pivot arms off and flip them over so that they are angled downward. The reason is that I am also rotating them 180 degrees from the stock position so that they are on the aft side of the pivot as apposed to the fwd side of the pivot which is stock. This is because I have to move them so far forward towards the front fire wall.

I'll check out your build Don and try to "borrow" some ideas.

Again, thanks for the tips guys.
Yarmouth Fiero NOV 18, 09:24 PM
Well, as Don had mentioned, there is a barrier / divider on the passenger side of the front air cowl that is blocking access to the revised passenger side wiper pivot location. But like most things on the Fiero chassis, once you identify the part you want to remove and locate the few strategic spot welds that GM thoughtfully used, it's just a matter of pursuading them to let go.

The divider is located inside the cowl just passed the depressed channel.



And here is the divider once its removed.



Now its wide open with lots of room for the passenger side wiper pivot.



On the drivers side of the cowl, there is a generous sized removeable panel behind the console that will provide access to the drivers side wiper pivot and linkages.



I need to make a similar access panel on the passenger side and there is lots of room for one.



Here is the linkage connected to the wiper motor arm. I shouldn't have to move the wiper motor as there is ample room for everything to rotate.



Here is the linkage connected to the drivers side wiper pivot. There is just enough room for the pivot arm to swing.......... I hope.

355Fiero NOV 19, 03:22 PM
Ah, that is what the barrier looks like...... Nicely done. I just took a driver to it to make more room for the air to pass through from my air hole on the passenger side.

Your response about the wiper blades, I understand but honestly, it took me 20 minutes to make new wiper arms using the Fiero bases and Neon arms. You will spend more time looking at cars ina pick and pull than that to find similar bases and then most likely have to rework the arms anyway as they won't be perfect lengths etc..... Just a thought.

The other thing to think about when doing the extended screen and the wipers inside the cowl is your defroster vent setup. With the wiper arms inside the cowl, you might be restricted in how far forward you can move your defroster vents with the extended screen tray. I made new defroster vents that fit in the cowl and were up near the front of the screen to get full coverage on the screen. Not a huge issue but everyone I have talked to that put the defroster vent more or less where the stock Fiero defroster vent goes, says that the lower half of the screen never fully clears from any moisture if you get out there. The fact that you are most likely driving these on nice, dry days, won't give you any grief but just more thoughts I went through as I finished off the extended screen setup and wipers.

Keep up the great work guys as these are coming out beautifully.

Cheers
Don
Yarmouth Fiero NOV 19, 03:38 PM
Hi Don

I have certainly considered your idea of modifying the stock wiper arms. I wanted to have a look at them before I commented. I agree that is much easier to do than search high and low for alternatives. As well, if the wiper arm pivots are unique to the Fiero, that will be a big problem.

Considering I have removed my roof and have no plans for a soft top, the need for wipers, HVAC, window defrosters, etc is probably minimal. Truth be known, I'm just looking for things to do until Blooz finishes his rear suspension so we can get going on the bodies ha-ha

[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 01-26-2014).]

Bloozberry NOV 19, 06:24 PM
What???! Last time I peeked in your garage there was still a big hole where the squirrel cage goes.