C3 windshield wiper refills

[Patrick B.]

NAPA lists refills that are supposed to work with the original arms and blades. The number is 601698. I bought some and the won't fit my original Trico arms. The rubber parts looks like the ones on the car, but instead of a thin metal piece to slide into the arms, they have a thick plastic piece that won't fit the arms. Does anyone know of refills that will fit from ordinary auto parts stores? I don't have time for sending off to Paragon because its going to rain tommorrow at about the time I am returning from local car gathering.

[Joe L.]

Re: C3 windshield wiper refills

NAPA lists refills that are supposed to work with the original arms and blades. The number is 601698. I bought some and the won't fit my original Trico arms. The rubber parts looks like the ones on the car, but instead of a thin metal piece to slide into the arms, they have a thick plastic piece that won't fit the arms. Does anyone know of refills that will fit from ordinary auto parts stores? I don't have time for sending off to Paragon because its going to rain tommorrow at about the time I am returning from local car gathering.

Patrick------


If I were you I would buy complete blade assemblies and install them on the car. You can then rebuild the original blades with proper inserts and save them for judged events only. I have found over the years that trying to replace just the insert usually results in a very poor performing wiper.

[Roy V.]

Re: C3 windshield wiper refills

Subscribing to this thread, because I have the same issue.

[Norm C.]

Re: C3 windshield wiper refills

Joe...Great advise that you previously gave a few years ago!!! That's exactly what I did. After locating another set of correct arms with metal washer tubes, I stored my original ones away with correct fillers and use the second set as my "drivers". It also feels good to be saving the original finish on the original arms! A "second thanks" for your advise back then!!

[Edward J.]

Re: C3 windshield wiper refills

Pat, sometimes you can remove the metal from the blades now on the car and install onto the rubber inserts from Napa. I have done this before.

[David L.]

Re: C3 windshield wiper refills

Over the years I have done a lot of research on wiper blades and wiper blade inserts (aka refills).
WIPER INSERTS (Gr. 10.146)
According to my 1969-1972 Chevrolet and Corvette parts catalogs:

GM # 1387040 (Trico 15 7/8" long), 68 PASS, 68-69 CORVETTE
GM # 3965940 (Trico 15 7/8" long), 68-71 All (exc. Camaro); 71 Nova, Chevelle; 68-71 CORVETTE

As per Chevrolet Parts History:
GM # 1387040 replaced by GM # 3965940 in Jan. 1970 which was replaced by GM # 9673996 in Oct. 1974.

Over the years I have also collected many sets of Trico and ANCO wiper blades from 1960's and 1970 salvage yard cars as well as NOS Trico and ANCO wiper blades and wiper refills.

I believe that the correct Trico refills (RF-16 and RF-18) for all 1970 Chevrolet models including the Corvette has "U.S. PATENT NO. 2697241" molded into the rubber but I am not 100% positive at least at this point in time. Researching parts really never ends. I have made sketches of the cross sections of the various Trico rubber refills during this era if anyone is interested.

Dave

[Patrick B.]

Re: C3 windshield wiper refills

Thanks all. I bought NAPA blades 60016, but I got the car back to my hobby shop before it began to rain so I didn't try them yet. I'll try them Wednesday and report the result. I'm also going to try to put the NAPA refill rubber part in the existing metal piece of the old refill, but I wanted to have a backup in case I ruined the existing metal piece in the process.

[Patrick B.]

Re: C3 windshield wiper refills

Well, the the NAPA wiper blades 60016, not refills, looked pretty good and they fit on the wiper arms. However, NAPA failed to take into account that 70 Corvettes have a wiper door to hide the wipers. The drivers side went on OK and the door was still able to close. The OE blades a very low and the replacement blades sit up higher. When I installed the passenger side blade which parks higher up the windshield than the driver's side blade when the wipers are turned off, the wiper door was no longer able to close. So, owners of 68 to 72 Corvettes, there are no alternatives to using original blades if you want the wiper door to close. Trico makes 43 series refills that appear to be the right thing but I haven't been able to find where to buy them yet.