VW 1500 replacement wiper arms

Not long ago I bought a pair of NOS SWF Type 3 wiper arms. They have the part number 311 955 407A, and they'll fit 1967 and earlier Type 3s. They're not the wipers my Ghia would have come with originally, though, but rather a later part that replaced the earliest design. The original 1961–66 wiper arms, part number 311 955 407, looked like this:


[image pilfered from thesamba.com]

The arms that replaced them have a slightly different appearance:



As far as I can tell, the 311 955 407A arms were introduced in the 1966 model year, superseding the earlier arms as replacement parts. I'm not sure what the functional difference is between these and the earlier arms; they both have the same poor design for clamping the arm to the wiper shaft: a small set screw that fights in vain to hold the wiper arm to the shaft against substantial torque. Working against the laws of physics, they would commonly strip themselves loose, especially if someone tried to run the wipers when they were frozen in place in sub-zero cold. The wiper shafts would get scored and galled to the point that the set screw could no long hold them in place securely.

In 1968 VW enlarged the wiper shafts from 5mm to 8mm, but this didn't solve the fundamental problem. Sometime in 1968–69 VW introduced a redesigned shaft/arm connection in which the arm was clamped around the shaft instead of being held by a set screw—a huge improvement. Wiper arms featuring this new clamp design were offered for earlier cars with 5mm wiper shafts too, as a "factory cure" for problematic early wipers. These clamping replacement arms were what my Ghia was fitted with when I bought it. They're fairly scarce—I guess the majority of early Type 3 owners just muddled through with their original wipers. Here are the two types of replacement arms side-by-side:




In 1970 VW finally solved the problem properly when splined wiper shafts and arms were introduced.

When I restore my Ghia I'll probably end up keeping the clamping arms it had when I bought it. They're fairly rare parts, and even though they aren't what the car was fitted with when new they were made to fit early 1500s and they're a big improvement on the original design. They're correct, if not actually "correct."

[Thanks to Russ Wolfe for his help in sorting out the complicated Type 3 wiper story.]

Rear suspension cleanup, part 2

I got to the left rear suspension today. There was evidence of a substantial brake fluid leak, so I'll need to do a complete brake once-over before the Ghia sees the road again. The left rear drum is missing its oil thrower, so I should start tracking one of those down while I'm at it. It's a Type 3–specific part that was only used until chassis number 0 076 299, a month or two into the 1963 model year, so I'll have a search on my hands. It's probably time for me to buy one of those Torque Meister tools (a.k.a. Torque Dude), so I can get the axle nuts on and off without breaking a breaker bar.



I cleaned up the wheel and found the April 1962 date code. I have all five of the original wheels, but I also have a set of NOS early Type 3 wheels that I'll probably end up using instead. The NOS wheels are the 1961–63 slotted style but are later replacement parts, so they have the extra safety bump on the rim that allows the safe use of tubeless tires.