No wipers, no brakes. Leaving June 2nd. Uh oh.

[dentedvw]

Thomas flat front FE, so it has the swing out doors the wipers are mounted on. The arms are all pretty buggered up so that when I turn on the wiper, it works until I am driving, then it wraps around the side of the bus. Pull over, put it back where it belongs, repeat until give up and stop driving. Rain X works a treat in rain, but doesn't do a thing for snow.
I am leaving for a long trip on the 2nd, and I forgot about the wipers, and that it might still be snowing in some of the areas I will pass through. Short of buying new parts, what other vehicles used similar mechanisms that I might scavenge the assembly from?

I was bleeding the brakes after replacing hydraulic lines, and one of the bleeders busted right off. :shock: I was pretty discouraged today. It's a front wheel. I bought a large hydraulic 12 ton bottle jack, but haven't gotten the front wheel off yet. I figured I am going to have to remove the entire caliper, and go find a replacement, because I also broke the easy out in the hole, and then the drill bit walked a bit, and I removed the threads too. All this on the LAST one, the others weren't too bad. I did replace a lot of lines though.

I hate going to the place that sells bus and truck parts here in Lansing, because everything is SO expensive. I can't even imagine what a new caliper will cost. Guessing $500.
Any thoughts on taking the wheel off? Anything special to know?

Closest truck wreckers are an hour away. I was figuring to load up the caliper, a wiper mechanism in my motorcycle box, and head there tomorrow and try to find parts.

 

[lornaschinske]

Don't know much about things up "North" Hubby from MI but he's at work. I'm gonna guess that you have NAPPA stores up there. They are usually reasonable. We asked at the one here in Socorro, NM (tiny dust spot in a larger dust spot) and they told us they can get parts for our BlueBird. If they don't have them, they can order in usually the next day or so. As for the wipers, can't help there except to tell you to get off the road when it snows (eek!) or rains.