Wiper Arm Pantograph

[eeyoreish]

Has anyone ever replaced the ball joint at the wiper spindle end of the pantograph arm?

It's a 2 part arrangement with the metal ball on a kind of raised peg fixed through the spindle plate on the scuttle, then a plastic socket in a metal holder held by 2 rivets to the pantograph arm itself.

The ball on mine is pretty rusted and although the arm stays on I'm concious that it's not right and one day might pop off at the most inopportune moment!

I'm pretty sure the whole spindle is NLA so was considering replacing the joint. Googling around hasn't yielded any similar joints hence I wondered if anyone else has already found something..?

[Vulcan Grey]

I replaced the plastic socket part, it was the very first thing to break when I was driving my new Esprit home almost 16 years ago!

I machined a new ball joint from aluminum.

[eeyoreish]

Wow, looks great! Does it fit as snugly as the plastic cap?

Dont suppose you fancy making another one??

Happy to pay for materials and shipping...

[Vulcan Grey]

I could send you the model, and you could have one made or 3D printed.

[eeyoreish]

Yes, that would be great. I assume it's emailable?

I'll pm you my email.

[Escape]

I should look into this as well, way to much play for comfort, having already had the mechanism fail on my previous Esprit...

Neil, if you find you need a minimum order to get it produced cost effectively, I'd be happy to join in!

Filip

[cammmy]

I'll just drop this here for anyone who comes across this and has a later car (the part is different)

The part numbers you need are here:

http://www.deroure.com/diagrams.asp?TBL=1490&MAK=1&MDL=15&SMA=0&SMO=0&ST=&SC=0

Specifically -  C082M4746F

I know they had this on the shelf a couple of weeks ago.

Ta

 

[OwenGT3]

Totally replaced my wiper arm as it had been repaired a few times. I used one from a Peugeot 107, Citroen C1 and Toyota Aygo as it has a control arm set up. It's not a straight swap over, it does need to be modified, the main arm needs making shorter, the control arm has the end cut off and I used a ball socket from Amazon that cost £3 each.

Amazon ball joint

I had to make the arm go from flat bar to round, but that was easily done with the welder and belt sander shaping the transition. I also needed to make a new base plate to move the control arm position to stop the sweep going off the end of the screen, but I do now have a 26" blade instead of a 24". Luckily the main arm all I had to do to that was shorten it and cut some from the bottom of the spline pillar so it would fit on the Lotus wiper spline. The control arm was where most of the work was. It also uses one of the new style blades with a the spring metal and it's smooth and not so noisy.

I bought two from the scrapyard if this one ever breaks. The picture below shows the old original modified wiper arm, the bought one and the other bought one modified, minus the new base plate.

Another good arm to consider is on the Toyota Yaris, I think it comes handed as well, so correct sweep for UK.

 

Edited June 3, 2016 by OwenGT3

[OwenGT3]

I now have a Toyota Yaris wiper arm, so will have a first look to seeing how easily it is to fit to the Esprit, if it can. At first glance offering it up to my Esprit, the Yaris wiper blade is too long, so another 26" blade will need to be sourced. I currently have a 26" blade over the standard 24", this is the blade used in the Citroen/Peugeot wiper arm. The control arm can be modified easily to work on the Esprit, it's the main arm. This has to fit on the Esprit wiper motor spindle splines otherwise it's not going to work. It also has to clear the screen. The Yaris arm is slightly longer than the position of my current converted 107 wiper arm is, so it might need shortening. It is a sturdy strong wiper arm, I paid £30 for the arm in total to test it.

[Glyn Harper]

On 31/01/2018 at 23:44, OwenGT3 said:

I now have a Toyota Yaris wiper arm, so will have a first look to seeing how easily it is to fit to the Esprit, if it can. At first glance offering it up to my Esprit, the Yaris wiper blade is too long, so another 26" blade will need to be sourced. I currently have a 26" blade over the standard 24", this is the blade used in the Citroen/Peugeot wiper arm. The control arm can be modified easily to work on the Esprit, it's the main arm. This has to fit on the Esprit wiper motor spindle splines otherwise it's not going to work. It also has to clear the screen. The Yaris arm is slightly longer than the position of my current converted 107 wiper arm is, so it might need shortening. It is a sturdy strong wiper arm, I paid £30 for the arm in total to test it.

How are you getting on? Would love to replace my arm.

[hspeck]

On 10/04/2016 at 01:15, Vulcan Grey said:

I replaced the plastic socket part, it was the very first thing to break when I was driving my new Esprit home almost 16 years ago!

I machined a new ball joint from aluminum.

Hi, I know it has been a few years, but do you happen to still have the dimensions for the ball joint?

My broke and i would like to ask my friend to 3D print a set if possible.

Thank you.

[Vulcan Grey]

@hspeck

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2nifoCpaFSfS1dIRWNzaXp4Z0k/view?usp=drivesdk&resourcekey=0-WAv1mTOIFBiT80kwicAy3A

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2nifoCpaFSfNThzakFtNjZnNFE/view?usp=drivesdk&resourcekey=0-OHQpqLVTcz3PVhTs5GTcYQ

[hspeck]

3 hours ago, Vulcan Grey said:

@hspeck

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2nifoCpaFSfS1dIRWNzaXp4Z0k/view?usp=drivesdk&resourcekey=0-WAv1mTOIFBiT80kwicAy3A

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2nifoCpaFSfNThzakFtNjZnNFE/view?usp=drivesdk&resourcekey=0-OHQpqLVTcz3PVhTs5GTcYQ

Thank you very much Travis!

I will send to the 3D printer.