To be or not to be the right wiper arm?

[babu2001]

I've found something weird on my Spider today. One of my wiper's arm has broke in half at the pivot. Looking closely, I've found that the splines of the pivot are much more fine and smaller than those on the arm. Here's a look at the splines on the pivot : and here's the ones I can see in the arms I'll buy : . Is it a simple matter of year/model? My Spider is a '83 and the arms are silver. Should be pre-'83 model I think. Any advice before I use some Mighty Putty?

[baltobernie]

Mine look like yours, with no difficulties. I think its more of a grip thing than an actual meshing of the splines. When you say the arm "broke at the pivot" do you mean at the spring-loaded hinge near your fingers in the photo? If so, that's probably just old age and corrosion. I'm sure you can find replacements from our usual vintage vendors.

[manoa matt]

All the wiper arms I've seen have the same large splines and all the wiper rack pivots have the fine splines. Don't know why, maybe a finer angular adjustment when you install them so they are indexed properly.

The wiper arm itself is stamped steel with a matte finish chrome, while the actual mounting point is made of a cast alloy that is also matte chromed. The cast alloy part is not aluminum rather a type of "pot metal" that can corrode, weaken, and eventually break.

[babu2001]

So, it seems that I have the right stuff. But by taking one of the pictures, I dropped the other arm on concrete and break it too. So I've ordered another set, hoping they will hold better. Thanks all.