wiper arms

does anyone know what wiper arms fit. in the online manual it gives part number 54-200. I am unable to cross reference as to what it came off of. I have tried beetle arms but they are too long. I found the blades that the manual calls for. thank you in advance for any help.

Just happens I tackled that issue recently and am about to do the same for another in our group. With ours the issue was that as the arms traveled through their range of motion, the blades would slam into the bottom of the windshield frame. That as well as their indexing being off so that they parked funky. To do what I did takes a little modification. I started with ANCO 41-01 arms (Summit or Amazon). They are adjustable both in length and blade angle, the kind of flexibility you need to get things correct. For blades I used ANCO 20-09, 9" blades designed for flat glass and feature the "dead locker" blade-arm attachment required by the arms.

So first up the female attachment cup of the arms that slide over the wiper actuator splines will not match up. I first removed the arms from the car and removed the springs. Carefully grind off the head of the pin that attaches that cup to the arm and tap it out so that the it separates from it. Do the same on the new ANCO arms. Now you graft the OEM cup to the new arms, I used a stainless steel ring shanked nail as a new pin cut to length so that about 1/4" extended past the arm. I purchased a bag of appropriately sized wheel collars from Amazon (Great Planes 1/16", 1/8" plated wheel collars-(12) for 8 bucks) to secure the pins. Put the springs back on and that's done

Now the new arms fit the OEM splines. The shortest adjustment on the arms were still a tad to long but no worries. They arms easily separate into two pieces and I trimmed of 1/4" or so and reassembled it.

The 9" blades were too long as well and they had to be modified down to 6" to work. That involved cutting the blade bracket down on both ends without disrupting the articulating parts (this will all be obvious when you have the blades in your hands). I left a little metal extending past where I trimmed off the rubber with a knife so that by bending the tabs up I would lock the rubber in place.

From there it's about adjusting the blade angle (which I suggest doing without the springs attached and by spraying a mild soapy solution on the glass) to get the indexing correct. Use tape on the cowl and on the attachment cup and draw a index line with a sharpie when you have it right. Reinstall the springs, the arms and your done.

Now assembled I have full sweep of the blades with no interference with the windshield frame and they both park nice and neat parallel to the bottom og the frame as they should. Yes it's only 6" blades but were stuck with windshields that are challenged vertically.

Going to take care of another local members car and then concentrate on installing a washer system.

Sounds like a lot but you can message me, I'll give you my phone number and talk you threw it.

thank you. my car sat unfinished for 28 year before I traded for it, so parts were lost over the years. this forum has been great at helping me to get it on the road to enjoy.

the wiper arms worked with some modification as described by DrJ. as for the blades I found 6" blades from New Port engineering (part number NE13006) these worked with no modification. Now I have wipers that work.

Glad it worked out. Wanted a spare pair of blades, will get a set from New Port. Thanks

I also just changed wiper arms on my Sebring MX. My wiper posts have a splined cone section topped with a male thread. The arms and blades that were on my car clamped over the threads of the wiper drive posts. I wasn't happy with that, nor with the way the blades had been cut to oddball size.

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I used Empi PN 98-5552 and PN 98-5555 wiper arms for 1970-72 VW Beetle. They mount to the drive posts correctly. I happened to have a couple correct M6-1.00 acorn nuts in my junk box. 5555 is 1/4 to 1/2 inch shorter than 5552, and since the Sebring windshield is soooo short, if I had it to do over, I would use two of PN 98-5555. X-ref to VW PN are 98-9552 = 111 955 407F, 98-5555 = 111 955 408B.

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For blades, I used two of PN 113-955-425B from Rock Auto. The PN looks like a VW PN, and so I'm sure Empi offers a similar. These are 10" long with a pivot clamp at the center. The arms must be modified to fit these blades, and the blades must be cut back as they are too long. If there's a shorter version of these blades, I wasn't able to find it.

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To mount the blades, I cut off the loopback portion on the end of the arms (right where the loopback starts, keep all of the 2" straight portion at least for now), and then I heated (to avoid cracking and twisting) and bent the arms further at the existing curve so that the blades would park parallel to the bottom of the windshield. Then I bent the arm again so the end would be parallel to the glass (and the blades would lay flat against the glass).

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I cut my blades to 8" length, making sure the mounting clamp was well centered (as-delivered was off center a bit). I checked the fit on the car and fine-tuned my bends and blade location before touching up the paint where I'd heated and bent the arms. I had a can of Moss Motors' PN 220-560 Silver for Wheels on my shelf - it was an excellent match.

I was pleased with the result. In park position, the wipers hug the bottom of the windshield frame, and look like they were built for this car (in fact they WERE). They miss the top of the windshield frame by about 1/2", and they just barely touch the bottom of the windshield frame at full stroke.

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I live in Arizona and don't intend to drive my car in the rain, so my priority was to have the blades park nicely against the bottom of the windshield frame. You may be able to use a longer blade (and get better overlap during operation) if you allow some non-parallelism in the park position, such that at the other end of the stroke, the longer blade end still doesn't hit the bottom of the windshield frame.

Nice work, thanks for the pix.

My wiper arms come from a 58-64 VW and mount to a plain 1/4" arm drive shaft [no splines].  The wiper arms are held on with a screw that tightens down on the shaft.  I worked on the old arms but they were too worn out.  They would bind and not press the blades against the wind shield.

So I purchased VW blades [item 252232063791] and arms [item 172492281872] off eBay.  The drawbacks are they must be re-painted and the push/compression arm spring is wimpy.  So I purchased Rustoleum Hammered Silver paint and 25mm x 8mm springs [item 133327694073].  The Hammered Rustoleum is really tuff stuff.  Highly recommended.

The first thing you do is loosen set screws and rotate/spin the arm shafts and re-insert in the arm base [see photo 1].  Old arms are on bottom.  Match them [see photo 1]

Photo 1
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Next you must put two bends in each arm shaft that you spun above [left in photo 2]. These are cold bends in a vice and reverse the existing bends [not difficult].  Sort of like a parallelogram.  Try the arm and blade against the wind shield and the bends become obvious.

Photo 2
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Old arms are upside down [photo 2].  You can see the traditional "pull" springs.  The short arm base [upside down] shows the newer compression/push spring [wimpy].  See the Hammered Rustoleum can.  Notice how the wiper blade rests on the wind shield.  Its not quite parallel to the bottom trim.  I left mine as shown.

If you want a parallel blade then you must hot bend it [cherry red] in a vice [more difficult].  You will burn the paint too.

Cut the 4 1/2" short side of the blade down to 2 5/8" from center rivet.  Paint the arm and blade.  Tape off the rubber first.  Assemble base, arm, and blade and insert new spring.  Mount on 1/4" shaft, position, and tighten screw.  It should not interfere with any wind shield trim.

Hope this works for you if you have the older VW I/4" drive shaft.

Thanks for the part number e023942. Rock wiper blades for 58-64 Beetle. Ran about $22 for the set after shipping.