I have had a couple request for information about my windshield wiper wet arms. I was never a fan of the piston pump and metal nozzles that must be aimed, but require a different adjustment for no/low/high speed travel. I have adjusted the nozzles before and had decent success, but I really like wet arms (washer nozzles on the wiper arm).
I started looking around for vehicles that have the wet arms from the factory and came to the realization that GM trucks from '85-'91 came equipped with them. Being these are easy to find in wrecking yards, I chose to use most of this setup. Here are the major components (less reservoir, pump and hose):
The "Y" fitting in the middle takes the 7/32" id hose from the pump and splits it to two 5/32" id hoses that go to the metal tubes that have the brackets on them. These tubes serve two purposes: one is they reduce the hose from 5/32" id hose to 3/32" id hose (this is specific hose made for wet arms), the other purpose is to have a fixed point for the arm-hose to attach. The two long black plastic things are hose supports that attach the hose to the underside of the arm. The two little things on the ends are the actual nozzles. They do not look like anything special, but these things flow some serious liquid.
One of the problems of converting to wet arms is the original arms do not lend themselves well to nozzle attachment or aim. The factory we arms have a different blade attachment style than the original blades:
The original arms have the blades attaching inline with the arm. The factory wet arm has the blade offset just above the arm with the nozzle right below it. The nozzle sprays liquid parallel with the blade. This is where the biggest problem arises in the conversion. If the nozzle was to be put on the original arm, it would have to be placed further down the arm so it would be at an angle to the blade instead of parallel with it. I debated quite a bit on this and finally decided to make a hybrid of the two arms. I took the base of an original arm and removed the blade end from it. Then, I took a factory wet arm and removed the blade end to use with the base of the original arm. I had to shorten the blade end of the factory wet arm, drill a couple holes to match up with the base of the original arm and bend the end for the spring to attach to. I then used standard pop rivets and put the arms together:
(Original top, hybrid arm middle, OE wet arm asm bottom)
After the arms are made, the hose must be run up the underside of the arm. My local mom and pop parts house was able to acquire the wet arm hose for this purpose. Fishing it up through the spring was not too much fun, but I was able to get it through. After it exits the spring it goes into the black plastic channel that supports it until it gets to the nozzle (channel gets shortened about one inch).
The hole in the arm is a locating hole for the nozzle:
In all of my shopping I ended up using an '85-'91 reservoir. It had to fit in a very undesireable location (but the only location it would fit), and that reservoir fit perfectly. Normally, white plastic is cheap from GM, but this reservoir was not--in fact it was something like forty bones. That being the case, I purchased a used one. I like the reservoir because it has an integral pump that is hidden behind the reservoir itself. I bought a new pump kit for it: (Old parts pictured)
Normally, I only buy Delco parts for my rides, but this Anco kit has the same pump as a Delco kit as they probably were the original supplier for it to GM. The little white thing is a check valve so the lines will stay full of fluid and decrease the amount of time for the spray to occur.
Installation of the arms was the same as original, but there is a hose to deal with now. This is no big issue other than there is not quite enough room for the hose to squeeze through the hole with the wiper trunion and the cowl screen. I ground a small amount out of the id of the hole and made enough room for the hose to coexist with the trunion:
The only part from the C/K system that I did not use was the steel tubes with the tabs on them. I could not figure out a way to make either of them work on either side. Also to use them would have required a large amount of material to be removed from the cowl screen. I figured another system must use something different. I found that the Astro/Safari vans have wet arms also and use a simple plastic reducer/connector at the base of the arms. It can be removed without removing the arm or the cowl screen from the van. Work it out of hiding with a pair of needle nose pliers, then cut it off with a knife--do not try to pull it out of the hose or it will probably break.
I used all GM components from the same vehicle type (except for the aforementioned pieces from the Astro/Safari, but the diameters were the same as the C/K stuff) so that I would be dealing with a whole engineered system--not trying to reinvent it myself.
So, with all of this work, I sure hoped it would work. Holy cow, does it ever. I do NOT use it in heavy traffic because so much water comes out that I can not see through the water until the wiper blade clears it off. No piston pump washer/wiper setup I have ever used worked half as well as this setup does. It was a fantastic mod that I am very glad that I took the time to do.