Windshield wiper fix to help others

I have a 2014 Tundra with a wiper (passenger side in this case) that wasn't working.

My passenger wiper started to not make its full journey across the windshield a couple of days ago. Today the wiper got so bad it didn't even move.

SOLUTION:
1. Use 14mm wrench and take off nut holding wiper arm on.
2. Take wiper arm off.
3. With wiper arm off, loop some thin wire in the hole of the wiper arm and twist off like a bread tie. I used some pretty thin non-insulated wire like the kind you hang a picture with.
4. Put the wiper arm back on. You may have to tap it on. Be careful not to damage the threads on the wiper post.
5. Use the 14mm wrench to tighten down the nut holding the wiper on. Don't tighten to hard, just enough so the bolt doesn't come off. Blue lock tight can be used.

The wiper should work now.

*sometimes when people use your truck in the winter they don't take the ice off the windshield before using the wipers This causes the cheap metal in the wiper system to become stripped. This is why some wipers don't work.

This fix saved me some serious money and has worked for a couple of years.

 

Greatly appreciated.
Any tutorials pics.

 

I wish I could have. Snow and sleet was coming down outside while I was doing this outside. Sorry no pics.

 

Very similar to this video. I hope the link works.


https://youtu.be/Fn28NtotVfo

 

This really shouldn't be needed...

The arms are aluminum and they go onto a steel post. The post is splined; the hole in the arm is a tapered smooth hole when new. The bolt should be tightened enough that the steel splines deform the aluminum into a shallow reversed spline pattern.

I thought that one of the arms had stripped out on me but the dealer tech showed me a new one. No splines. Cleaned and tightened both, no issues since.

 

Agreed but this works. Next spring or summer on a nice day, I'll take it apart and clean both and see what happens. I assumed that when I let someone drive my truck that they operated the wipers before cleaning off the windshield of ice and snow....so I assumed the reverse splines were stripped smooth.

I didn't get much of a chance to inspect the wiper arm itself because I was doing this in poor light, outside in a snow storm. Thanking my lucky stars that the drivers side was still working fine to get me where I wanted to go.

 

Just tighten it back down. If you stripped it that bad just get a new arm, they are cheap usually. Not worth the time to find wire and dick around

 

Just to confirm, I don't "Dick Around"

Not cheaper than $3 for the wire.

 

Didn't mean to offend. Feelings are not allowed online

 

If it did strip so bad it needed replacement, in lieu of a steel wire, i wonder if plumber's solder would work. It's easy to cut, small enough to keep a little roll around, and is soft enough that there's no way it can damage a post. May be an easier way to do this emergency fix