Improving windshield wipers on Volvo 122

Hi all,

Not sure if anyone has extended driving experience with a 122, but the wipers suck. Like really suck. I've got new arms and wipers from VP, and it's dangerous to drive it in anything other than light rain. Heavy rain, forget it. Been there, done that. Then they randomly just beat the windshield trim to death. I've had 3 of these things now, and all have had scratched up windshields and ruined trim.

My predicament is, the wipers are only like 6 inches long. Aside from that the original arms don't take a bolt or anything to hold them onto the shaft. I feel like the arm doesn't have enough tension to properly keep the wiper down. I have zero idea how to fix the "over-extension" of the wipers so they don't beat the trim to death either.

Any ideas? Has anyone seen anything on any other classics that might work?

Kyle

Hello Kyle,

Yes, the 122 wipers suck and so do the 1800 and 544 wipers.

The wiper blades are actually 11", but they do seem to do the work of a 6" blade.

You can try to bend the arms to apply more pressure.

If your windshield is old and pitted, the pits hold moisture and blur your vision.

And you might want to try a windshield coating like RainX.

The damage done to the windshield trims is usually do to wear in the old style of wiper towers.

Volvo updated the wiper assembly and the wiper towers no longer have any gears and are driven by cables which are less likely to cause damage.

Can you take and post a picture of the wiper assembly under the dash? A view of the back of the passenger side wiper tower will help.

I'm a big fan of rain x,however if the glass is even moderately pitted don't use it that will make it worse.

The glass is in pretty good shape, no real pitting. I'll try and look up under the dash and see what the wiper assy looks like. Mine's a 66, my parts car is a 67. I think they have the same stuff.

agee with using rain-X. The water droplets just blow of the screen. It relieves the work that the wiperblades would have to do.