My son and i were working on his 96 subaru legacy wagon today.  Put a new hood on and went to replace the rear wiper motor assembly as it was done for.

 

When taking off the drive spindle retaining nut which is under the wiper arm, we couldn't get the nut to come off the final threads. We were using  23 mm deep socket and it was just spinning forever on the last mm of threads. We tried everything. Finally had to hack saw it off.

 

Now we are tying to find a replacement and the hardware store is not helping.  Any one know what size the and thread it is?  I will take the motor with me tomorrow, but kind of need the wiper motor sooner than later.

 

 

Try a junk yard. I have a 95' wagon and swapped hatches awhile back, and donor had a dead motor, so swapped my good wiper assembly on. I removed both units w/o issues (original hatch had a seized key lock from giant rust hole, but actual wiper assemblies were no issue to remove), despite being in the rust belt as well.

 

I'd just buy an entire wiper assembly for $5-$15, or try and remove the nuts and don't say what they are from, and pay $1 for them. Reason I suggest entire wiper assembly though is a spare can com in handy.

We did get a replacement from a parts yard, but the spindle retaining nut was not on it and I didn't think it was a big deal until the one I tried to remove from teh bad unit would not come off due to a damaged thread.  

sometimes you can look up parts on subaru websites and it may give the size.  here's forester: 

 

http://parts.subaru.com/p/Subaru__/MOTOR-ASSEMBLY-REAR-WIPER/49299542/86510AG15B.html

 

it says "M6" which would mean a 6x1.00 thread shaft for that nut. 

 

try the same with yours?

Try a nut from the front... it just might be the same size.  If it is you can take that nut into the hardware store, fit a bolt that it fits which will tell you the size and pitch.  Then find a nut with those specs.  Its a roundabout way, but its how I figured out what my shifter was years ago on my GL.

Thanks everyone.

I'm not sure you're going to find that one at a hardware store...it's pretty thin to fit under the cap, and therefore under the wiper arm.

 

86514AC000 and MSRP of $2.32. Looks like no dealerships in the region have any on hand, but the Indiana supply warehouse has them, so I bet a dealer near you could have one in a day or 2.

 

 

Or, look in a Junkyard. It looks like all Legacies, Imprezas, and SVXs used that same retaining nut through 1999 (-2001 for Impreza)

Edited January 30, 20179 yr by Numbchux