Some weeks ago I bought a small ball joint from a local engineering shop. The idea was to repair the wipers on the Doblo. The ball joint for the linkage to the passenger wiper kept falling apart but you have to buy the whole assembly to renew even the smallest part.
This week a customer who also has a Doblo van gave me a spare wiper assembly. She had renewed hers for a different fault so the balljoint linkages might be of some use. I found this one was pretty much as worn as my own but at least I could now tackle the planned modification in the knowledge that I could still put my old bits back on.
The new joint is a bit like a small track rod end, with a threaded hole to take an adjusting screw. I sawed off the link rod to remove the old balljoint socket and welded a 6mm bolt in its place. I found the ball part of the old joint could be knocked out using a punch as it is just a press fit with splines. I then tried to assemble the modified joint to my mechanism. This is where things went wrong. There are 2 link rods, both the same length. What I didn't realise is that they have slightly different diameters to the moulded on plastic bush at the motor end 0f the rod. The arm on the motor has a double ball end but the inner ball is bigger than the outer. The rod I had modified was the one with the smaller diameter whereas it should have been the bigger one. When I tried to fit it I got it over the first ball but the bush shattered when I tried to push it further. So I had to put it all back together with the old bits but at least I'm learning more obout it for when I have another go.

The unmodified setup using bits robbed from the donor assembly worked OK until a few weeks ago. This time it was the drivers wiper that kept coming adrift. Obviously this is more serious that losing the passenger wiper. Also, when it's the drivers one it shoots past the dge of the screen and wraps round the edge of the door, scratching the paintwork into the bargain I had to drive to Dumbarton last Sunday to pick up a motorbike (Doblo is ideal for this, went in with loads of spare room), a 440mile round trip. The wiper failed after only a few miles and refused to stay working for more than a couple of sweeps. It was blowing a gale and raining most of the way down. I was trying to lean over to the middle to look through the passenger part of the screen! When I got to my destination I called the RAC as I didn't fancy the same nightmare journey home. The RAC man took off the drivers wiper altogether and adjusted the passenger one so it swept the drivers side of the screen, why didn't I think of that? :chin:

I had done the mod as described in my previous post and thought that was the wipers sorted for a while. No such luck, having renewed the balljoint on the drivers wiper arm spindle, the center balljoint started to keep falling apart. This is on the crank from the wiper motor and is a double balljoint, the outer ball driving the drivers wiper rod. This time I have just welded a washer on the end of the ball spindle to stop the worn rod end from falling off.

Hey Fido

I've been told by a valeter friend in a local Fiat dealer the genuine Fiat fix for the faulty passenger wiper mechanism is to simply drill through and fit a split pin. Be careful the arm is tempered steel and if you break the bit you're screwed :bang: and you need a complete mechanism...sweet eh