Wiper linkage cleanout?

Not sure what to title this..

The previous owner of my truck left the hood and wiper cowl cover off when he stored it, it was somewhat under a carport (not really, had to rebuild the motor). I noticed putting my hood on that inside where the wiper linkage is, cowl area I guess it's called, there are so many pine needles and leaves, what's the best way to clean that out? Is there a way to access that area from the bottom?

I know water has to leak out somewhere when it rains, but having so much pine needles and such I don't want it to rust.

I thought about a vacuum with a small flexible attachment to get down there, but I know I won't be able to get it all.

Thanks for the help!

No way to clean it from underneath; probably best bet is to shop vac all that crap from up top as best you can, then flood it with the hose to get anything else out. Rainwater is supposed to drain from each far end through an oval hole that has a plastic duct attached to it which drains into the gap between the fender and door.

Richard

Awesome, thank you. Time to get creative with the shop vac.

Richard I've been tempted to loosen the couple of bottom bolts on the fender and pull it out a bit (while rinsing)... would that help? I've flooded the area before, but crap always seems to remain.

454cid said:

Richard I've been tempted to loosen the couple of bottom bolts on the fender and pull it out a bit (while rinsing)... would that help? I've flooded the area before, but crap always seems to remain.

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Not sure that would make any difference. I'd think the best thing is to take the wiper arms and cowl plastic off, clean it out as best as you can, then install a layer of fine window screen cut to fit across the cowl before re-installing the plastic. I had always meant to do this on my 400 back when it lived outside and caught a bunch of pine needles, but never got around to it so I can't speak of any negative effects this approach might have.

Here's some pics that show the ductwork and where it goes, if you can use your imagination a bit. The black plastic diagonals at each end of the firewall are the ducts.



In this pic the duct is removed, and you can see the gap area between the fender and door; the black foam insulation is attached to the cab's lower A pillar. The original reason for this pic was to show crash damage to the firewall on my old '92 that I sledgehammered out before rebuilding it after being stolen and stripped.



By the way the ducts have little soft rubber flaps at the bottom where they drain; this might prevent some easy flow of debris? I dunno. It's a lot of work to get to this level of disassembly; I had only done it because the front clip being off was the perfect opportunity to get in there and hammer this damage out and replace the broken HVAC box at the same time.

Richard

I'm not sure I have that foam. The area I'm speaking of holding the crap is in the lower area where the door and fender meets.... that seems to get bits from the cowl area, but maybe I'm not paying close enough attention to what's coming from where, and it's dropping outside of the plastic cover.... it's covered in snow right now, so I'm not going to go look. Thanks for the detailed answer.

I see what you mean. The two black "duct works" are at the end of the cowl. Only way to access them is to get the fender off I'm assuming?

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Yep, I can't say for sure if GM used that foam on later models - that was on my '92. Been too many years now since I've torn down so many different year 400's on a daily basis, some of the less-important details get a little blurry. I think the window screen treatment up top between the cab and the cowl plastic would prevent a lot of what you're experiencing.

As far as removing those ducts, don't think there's any reason to do so - but yeah I do believe the lower screw may be difficult to reach, maybe not possible, with the fender in the way, or at least the inner fender.

Richard

I just had them off of my '98 Suburban. The passenger side requires the removal of the over flow container. The lower screws area pain to get at but a long 1/4" extension and a swivel socket will get the job done

Good deal. I didn't wanna say "yeah you can do it" without knowing for sure - the only ones I've ever taken off, the front clip was already out of the way, and that lower screw sure is at the extreme edge of the firewall.

Richard