Want to drive your Mopar more often but scared of water leaks ruining the carpet? Follow along and we'll show you how to repair one of the most common causes of water leaks.
If you're like us, you spend countless hours getting your car ready to head to the track or local car show on the weekends and the last thing you want is for your ride to be rained on. Many a Mopar has stayed garaged on a cloudy day while the owner checks the forecast and watches the sky, hoping for the sun to peek out so he or she can enjoy the car. Eventually, however, we all take a chance and drive our cars when the weather is questionable, and, more often than not, getting caught in the rain means redetailing the car, or worse yet, dealing with water leaks and wet feet.
Water leaks aren't just frustrating and uncomfortable; they're bad for the car. Automotive carpeting can quickly become saturated with water, and if it's not dried immediately the dye can run or it can stain, mildew, and deteriorate. Worse yet, once the carpet and underlying insulation become waterlogged, water will stand on the car's floor causing rust issues to both the car's floor and the seat tracks. Since it's nearly impossible to completely towel dry or vacuum water from soaked carpeting and insulation, the best way we've found to ensure your car won't be water damaged is to fix the source of the leaks.
To remove the wiper pivot arms, it's easiest to first remove the nut holding the linkage to the wiper motor. The pivot arms can now be removed as a pair.
While some water leaks can be blamed on old weatherstripping, faulty windshield gaskets, or windows simply being left open, there is a major cause of water leaks in Mopars that is often overlooked or simply not thought of. The windshield wipers in most of our cars have seals that seal the pivot arm to the inside of the cowl, and after thirty or forty years these seals deteriorate, dry rot, and break, allowing water to find its way through the seal, along the pivot arm shaft, and into the car's floor. Wiper seal leaks are commonly misdiagnosed as damaged windshield gaskets or bad weather-stripping, so before you pull the windshield or purchase new window rubbers, you should consider replacing the wiper seals.
The good news about wiper seal leaks is that they are pretty easy to fix. Other than the discomfort of lying on your back on the car's floor to remove the pivot arms, installing the seals is pretty straight forward and requires no special tools. We purchased the seals for our '67 Barracuda from Year One and we were impressed with how inexpensive the kit was. While we're installing seals on an A-body, most Mopar body styles have similar wiper seals so don't be afraid to attempt this on your B- or E-body. Although this repair isn't technically complicated, you should give yourself the better part of a day to accomplish it, especially if you haven't changed wiper seals before. Since we are in the process of putting our car back together for paint, our pivot arms were exposed, making the job somewhat easier. If you're attempting the repair in your driver, removing the front seats and heater box will make it easier.
So follow along as we show you how easy it is to replace windshield wiper seals. And soon you'll enjoy cruising your car without having to duck into the nearest bank drive-thru or car wash when it starts raining!
