"1990 Land Rover Defender 300tdi: Fitting New Windscreen Wiper Arms"

Green 1990 Land Rover Defender Front View

I’m trying to replace the rusty old windscreen wiper arms and blades on my 1990 Land Rover Defender 300tdi. I’ve managed to removed the old ones marking where the arms were with masking tape like the Haynes manual says, but I’m having trouble fitting the new arms and blades. I have made sure the spindle is clean and wire brushed of as much of the dust and dirt on it as I can, as well as putting a little oil on it and the spindle socket on the new arm. However I seem only to be able to get the arm on halfway before it grinds to a halt. Also on one of the spindles the shaft seem to be loose I can freely pull it forward about 1.5cm, whereas the other shaft is solid, anyone know how to fix this as I cant find any info on it in my Haynes manual. Any advice on re-fitting new wiper arms would be much appreciated.
Answer: The wiper spinals are a on a taper so bolting them down when at halfway is normal, just nip them up, no need to over tighten. If the spinal shaft is worn then you need to fit new wiper box’s, as they are sometimes called in the land rover world. This can be a fiddly job. Not one of my favorites.