Greetn's Y'all...I inherited a 92 Dakota when my brother passed away recently, got an issue with the wiper linkage. I'm a BTA shadetree mech., been working on all of my vehicles for past 40 years. This 'ol 92 is about the most butt-ugly truck you've ever seen, but she runs great (V6) is real solid and was just what I needed. Got 'er back from Daytona to Ohio with no issues except lousy mileage (13-14) but the wipers were non-functional. Yanked it all apart and of course the bushings were gone ...no big deal I'm thinkin'....quick trip to AotoZone. Cut to the chase, here's the rub...on the passenger side pivot and the drive link on the motor, the available bushings fit fine no issues. On the driver side pivot, however, the stud...where the arm between the two pivots AND the drive arm from the motor both connect...is "stepped"....imagine the shape of a beer bottle, sorta, if ya know what I mean. Local Dodge parts guys just scratched their heads and stared at their computer screen....then suggested some BS drill out one of our $6.00 bushings fix and if that don't work come back and buy another yada yada...you get the picture....
Can't find a thing online, got to be a simple fix for this....just need that first bushing for the "fat" part of the beer bottle....ya feel me???
Sure don't wanna go drop $20-$40 at some boneyard for the whole damn linkage....any help mightily appreciated.....Buck

 

I know lots of others had replaced those bushings. I will move this to the 1st generation Dakota sub-forum, where others can comment on this and help you.

 

I know which one you're talking about. It's not available. You have to make one out of one of the other sized bushings. I've had to do it to multiple Dodges over the years. Here in AZ they dry out and come apart regularly. If you're a fabricator and/or an adapt and over come kind of guy you can make it happen. Otherwise you're S.O.L. Next time I do one I need to remember to take pictures because it's impossible to try to describe what you need to do without them. Also one of the reasons the plastic bushings go out is the pivots that the arms attach to dry out causing more force on those bushings to try and move the wiper blades. I drill 1/16" holes in mine and grease them with a needle fitting I have for my grease gun.

A.J.

 

Hey, thanks to you both.....figured this was gonna be improvise and adapt, which I'm thankfully fairly proficient at. The bushing I got from the local Dodge dealer was larger than the AutoZone/Dorman ones by a few hairs....think I should just drill it out to let it slip down to the lower part of the stud shaft? The other thing I discovered is that the hole on the arm that connects the two pivots is also slightly larger on the driver side, and only the bushing I got from the Dodge dealer is large enough to need pressing in. Really appreciate the responses and move to the proper forum, I'm in no big rush so I guess I'll wait for some more ideas to hopefully come in.....THANKS!!