Fixed Ops Journal - April 2018 - F35

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

The new wiper puller
sold by OTC is intended
to make it easier for
repair techs to remove
blade arms quickly

Wiper tool gets into tight spots, but do techs really need it?

MARK ELIAS

foj@autonews.com

new specialized service tool is designed to remove wiper blade arms
quickly, enabling technicians to get
into tight spaces to replace windshield wiper motors, windshields or other devices such as batteries.
Some potential customers call the 4680
Wiper Puller a useful niche device. Others
suggest it responds to a need that they think
hasn't been shown.
The tool is sold by OTC, a division of Bosch
Automotive Service Solutions. It has a suggested retail price of $99.95, but Bosch says
local distributors will set prices in their markets. The 4680 went on sale in February.
Wiper pullers are not new. But OTC says its
device is a high-force puller with moveable,
interchangeable arms of different widths. This
flexibility will allow techs to work faster and
more efficiently, the supplier says.
Dirk Skogerboe, a Bosch Automotive product
manager, calls his company's wiper puller "a
near-universal application, especially in tighter
spaces that are becoming more common" or on
vehicles that have deeply recessed wiper blade
arms. Use of the device, which comes with a
lifetime warranty, minimizes tech errors that

Transferring calls
the right way

Your December 2017 article "Bad
Connection" gave tangible reasons for
implementing practices to eliminate how
business is potentially lost by not serving
customers. When dealerships and their shops
transfer phone calls, the protocol should be:
1. Wait for the person to whom you're
transferring the call to answer.
2. Brief that person on the call so the caller
doesn't have to repeat everything and your
teammate can mentally prepare.
3. Transfer the call.
4. If you get voicemail, let the caller know
that the person or department is unavailable
and you will transfer them to voicemail. Tell
the caller to please leave a message and that
you'll be leaving one as well.
5. Follow up with an email and copy the caller.
6. Follow up again if you don't hear that the
caller has been served.

Tool time
Features of the new 4680 Wiper Puller,
marketed by OTC, part of Bosch
Automotive Service Systems
 High force
 Tapered arms for tight locations
 Lifetime warranty
 Midrange price point
Source: OTC

"scratch the glass or paint," he says.
A socket wrench can twist the head of the
4680's forcing screw, permitting the removal
of a bolt cover over the wiper blade arm, then
the bolt itself. The puller arms extend around
either side of the base of the wiper arm that
fits over the spline shaft. They force the wiper
arm upward and away from its seated position
on the shaft, so that it also can be removed.
Skogerboe notes that competing wiper pullers use a swing jaw-type clamp or rounded cutout that fits around the base of the grooved shaft
on which the wiper arm pivots; twisting a knob
on the puller applies pressure to pull the arm off
the shaft. But he says the 4680 can reach into
deeper areas that older pullers cannot.

LETTERS
Fixed Ops Journal welcomes letters from our
readers. Send your letters intended for
publication to foj@autonews.com; please
include your name, address, daytime phone
number and title (if any). Letters may be
edited for length and clarity.
In this manner, you know whether you are
transferring the caller to the wrong person or
department.
By showing callers we are their advocate,
and by letting them know we will be bending
over backward for them, we don't give them
any option but to leave a message.
People in auto shops work hard. Soft skills
content can help make hard work pay off even
more.

Matco Tools, Snap-on Tools, Motoring
Shoppe and other vendors offer products similar to the 4680 Wiper Puller. Prices in the segment range from $13.65 to $479.95 as part of a
broader toolkit.
Some service technicians say a blade screwdriver works fine as a wiper arm puller, although
Skogerboe warns that risks paint and glass damage. Other techs question the need for the 4680,
especially at what they call its high price.
The new device "may work on some cars, but
on our Mazda vehicles, you don't need it," says
Ernesto Olano, a technician at Mazda of Palm
Beach in North Palm Beach, Fla. "You remove
a bolt, push down on the arm and it pops out."
Olano says the only time he needed to use a
dedicated wiper puller was on a heavily rusted car. "I am sure there are some uses for it,"
he says of the new tool, "but why would you
try to reinvent the wheel?"
Robert Rubsky, the shop foreman at Schumacher Chevrolet-Buick-GMC-Volkswagen in
Lake Park, Fla., says he knows of no technicians "who would buy that tool for $100."
"If it was in the $30 range, it works good,"
Rubsky says. He adds with a laugh: "If you
need [a wiper puller] and don't have it, you go
to the technician with the double-wide Snapon toolbox who does, and borrow his." 

IAN COBURN
Director of Learning
GPA Training Inc.
Aurora, Ill.

Service lags on technology

I commend Richard Truett for his column
"Why customers stray" (June 2017). The
potential of every dealership in America could
easily be doubled if we took basic steps to
retain our customers and protect our dealer
brand and that of the OEM we represent.
The industry has gone digital, and the
service side has trailed in adopting
technologies that we now take for granted in
retail. The road to keeping customers would
be more easily achieved if all dealers looked
at the companies Truett discussed.
GREGORY NOONAN
President
Insight Media Enterprises Inc.
Cherry Valley, N.Y.

APRIL 2018

PAGE 35

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - April 2018