Wiper arms

[enigma-2]

Weird little problem. I put new Trico Platinum wiper blades on the car. 20" passenger and 26" driver. Really nice blades. Now this was back in May. 

 

Anyway, noticed last week during the blizzard that the drivers blade made a thunk when it reached the up end of travel and left a bunch of streaks when returning to the down position. Checked it out by switching the blades and the passenger blade now did the same thing. Turns out that (somehow) the drivers wiper arm has a larger J-HOOK than the passenger. (Passenger arm fits both blades perfectly).

 

The passenger hook  measures 3/4"× 1/2" and the drivers hook measures 1-5/16"× 3/4". (I read that the smaller is called a J-3 & the larger is called a J-4. Stands for millimeters, smaller is 3 mm, larger hook is 4 mm).

 

Never noticed any difference in all the years I've owned the car. Both arms look like the aged the same. I'm sure I would have noticed it before in all the years I've owned the car. I can't figure out how it could have gotten changed? (Or when).

 

Called Trico technical services and they said that, basically I was nuts. Can't possibly happen. Both are the same. I hooked the drivers up wrong. She said the larger hook was ONLY used on trucks and large motor homes, so it could not have been used on my car. I reminded the lady that wiper arms are designed vehicle specific, that it fits perfectly, and she promptly hung up. Great customer service. All I wanted was a plastic adapter to insert into the blade to adapt to the larger hook. 

 

Anyway anyone else ever run across this? The arm on the drivers side with the larger J4 hook has the exact same profile as the size and shape of the J3 arm. (The didn't use two different size arms in the gen-1 cars did they)?

 

Got a new arm for the drivers side coming from Ebay so should fix it.

Edited October 30, 2022 by enigma-2