The 4 hour window......

8:29 am - Monday - February 18th - Wittmann, AZ - 39º F, 94% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the northwest......cloudy today after an all night rain storm with a forecast high of 52º F.

Without the clear blue skies Sunday, and the constant sun it would have felt much colder.  Here in the desert during this winter there is about a 4 hour window during the day when the outdoor temperatures are conducive to t-shirts, shorts and flip flops.....10 am to 2 pm.  Outside of that time window you must wear hooded sweatshirts, pants and shoes when outside, so I just don't go outside until 10 am.

I only had two things I wished to accomplish Sunday.....finish wiping the dirt and grime off the rear cap, and remove the right windshield wiper air operated motor to see why it stopped working.  You will recall our harrowing journey from Chattanooga, TN southward through Atlanta and Macon to Valdosta, GA on I-24 when it rained hard all day long.  I don't think I have ever had to run my wipers for 9 straight hours before, but apparently that put the almost 37 year old right (passenger) windshield wiper on the disabled list.  Fortunately I can get by with just the driver side wiper.....the passenger side is really for TLE's convenience, but I want my stuff to work, so Sunday was the day I decided to investigate the cause of its demise.

Since the windshield wipers are air operated they function independently one from another.  There are approximately 12 phillips head screws which hold the wiper assembly in place on the front of the coach, plus two more screw caps which attached the actual 'wiper' to the motor.  Once you get the wiper detached from the motor and the 8 phillips head screws there are at least 4 more slot screws to remove before you can get at the actual motor.  Then there is one vacuum line, and two air lines to detach before you can hold the motor in your hand.  It took me a good hour to remove the motor, mostly because it was my first time.  I'm sure the next time I have to remove one of them it will only take 20-30 minutes.

 The whole assembly before removal

That's a lot of screws!

Once I had the motor sitting on my workbench there were another 8 screws to remove which hold the body of the motor together, then I was able to pull the halves of the motor apart.  Once I had the motor opened I saw there was a plastic piece that was broken.  It appeared to be some sort of a 'stop' to limit the range of the wiper, but I couldn't be sure that was what was keeping the motor from operating.  Nevertheless, using some super glue, I fixed the broken piece and reinstalled it where it belonged.  The motor appeared to be well lubricated, so that ruled out one idea I had.  At any rate, I reassembled the motor making sure all the parts were moving easily, and then reinstalled the motor....only took about 15 minutes, and there were no parts leftover!  I'll need to start up the Newell to build air pressure to check to see if it is fixed......I have my doubts, but we will find out then.  If not, then more research will be required to repair it, or solve the problem of its disabled nature.

Before.....

After.....all clean now!

Once that was done I got out my telescoping ladder to wipe the grime/dirt off the top of the rear cap, and then called it a day.....by then it was fast approaching 2 pm and beginning to become, once again, inhospitable to t-shirts, shorts and flip flops.....time to head inside to watch some golf!

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