I have a problem.
North Texas received 4 inches of freezing rain 2 days ago (still below freezing, so ice still here)... Here's the problem.

In preparation for the storm (the night before), I stopped the wiper blades in the upright position (vertical) holding a trash bag against the glass so that the windshield would be easier to clean the next morning. (Bad idea)

We received 4" inches of ice and sleet and when I needed to take the disco to work, I started the engine to let the defroster to it's job. When I started the engine, the wipers (being up in the upright / vertical position) kept trying to go down but they were frozen in place by the ice and apparently something broke.

Once the ice eventually melted, I noticed that the wipers no longer worked.

I can tell that the motor is working because the blades move about 1"...but that's it.

Note: When the wipers are turned OFF, there is very little resistance to the wiper arms. It seems like the gears are stripped or ??? (something else is striped).

Any ideas what the problem is ?

Thanks in advance.
Mike

 

Try tightening the nuts that hold the arms on the shafts.

 

Good Idea - I'll try it.

 

Worked great - Thanks !

I did not expect the shafts to be loose and I definitely did not expect both of them to be loose at the same time, in relation to windshield ice, as they have been working great up until now.

I do understand how they probably loosened up...and it's fixed.

Thanks Again

 

I'm glad that's all it was. It gets much more difficult from there.