Hello All:

SUCCESS! Thanks to all. In order to help future generations with this work I thought I would take a moment to document more fully this procedure.

Incidentally, the problem was that the seal between the cable roller and shaft for the driver's side wiper was compromised. The resultant wobble allowed the cable to free itself from the cable roller, hence no wiper action on that side of the car.

Here are steps for removal of the windscreen wiper assembly:

1) Disconnect battery

2) Remove wiper switch from dashboard
a) Unscrew black bakelite knob from shaft
b) Use a flathead screwdriver to rotate the inner slotted chrome ring anticlockwise. Remove this piece.
c) Now remove the chrome 'Wiper' label ring and push out the switch.

3) Following the wrapped three-wire lead from the wiper motor, make note of the position of the positive, negative and ground wires on the wiper switch. Disconnect these wires from the switch.

4) Remove the climate control assembly.
a) Unscrew the two screws from the bottom of the slider controls and the one screw above the center slider.
b) Remove this assembly through the back of the dashboard. You will probably have to move the slider controls to the center position and rotage the unit 90 degrees to help the knobs clear the opening.

5) Disconnect the odometer cable from the passenger side of the instrument cluster.

6) Outside the car, remove the wiper blade assemblies by pulling straight up off the splined shafts.

7) Remove the 7/8" nut from each shaft.

8) Lift the chrome ring off each shaft.

9) Rotate anticlockwise the black seal off each shaft.

10) Back inside the car, remove the two screws that hold the wiper assemble to the body of the car. This will free the unit to pull down through the shaft holes. It will help to have a short phillips-head screwdriver for this purpose.

I used a two part epoxy to reconnect the cable roller to its shaft. Give it plenty of time to cure. I also put a bit on the working side since I figured a failure of one might mean a failure of the other before too long.

I removed the two locknuts from the end of the compromised cable, restrung it around the cable roller using the uncompromised side as a guide, and then reinstalled.

Reinstallation is exactly the reverse. Ensure you do not reverse the polarity when you reconnect the wiper motor leads on the wiper switch, or the wipers will not reset in the down position when you turn them off in the middle of the cycle.

Cheers,

Jeff Pucillo

Cut your losses and take the whole thing out. Nuts off the spindles outside and 3(?) screws/bolts inside plus unplugging the wires. Pull down gently so the spindles don't snag the seals. Put a bit of rtv around the joints when you put the nuts back on. Fingers crossed you can sort it in a few minutes on the bench.

Jeff;

I suggest that restoring the cable linkage may be significantly simplified if you first remove the entire wiper assembly (yeah, it may sound like a big deal, but you amy agree when you're done!) ...to remove, (disconnect battery) first remove heater controls to clear assembly, then detach entire assembly from dashboard (including shafts through cowling, and wiring), and remove from under dash...once you have it extracted, use the intact side as a model to reroute cable on the problem side...I expect you definately will need to loosen those nuts to reattach the cables...perform a close inspection of the problem side, as I expect something was amiss to cause the cable to come away from its normal routing! ...and lube shafts in bushings which go through cowling and up to wipers well, else they like to seize rock solid!

Good Hunting