Wiper linkage broken or 'popped off'

[johnny_quattro]

After a quick clear of the windscreen recently, my wipers stopped abruptly - pointing upwards, presumably paying homage to DTM cars. I opened the bonnet and saw that the lower link had popped off the top link. A quick search online revealed just one wiper linkage set and that was in Lithuania, and of course, it was left-hand drive. A call to Maria at A8Parts and it was established that there was no current stock. Yikes.

I called a friend who's pretty handy with mechanical things and we knocked up a Heath Robinson affair by drilling a 3mm hole through both the domed cap on the lower arm and into the metal lump on the top arm while the two items were linked in place. Inserted an M3 bolt from the bottom with washer, another in the middle and then one on the top which was then tightened enough to ensure it retained the top part without binding. A second nut was used to lock it, along with a dab of superglue as we had no Loctite. It all seems to work beautifully.

Ideally I'd like to replace the whole thing but that depends [a] on the availability of spare and [b] the condition of said spares. I'm going to monitor the situation over the coming days/weeks and I'll have a spare kit in the car in case it snaps or something. If it does, then I'll have to drill it again to take an M4 bolt - and you can get M4 nyloc nuts too.