Just a little warning for all those in the Northern snowy states..

We had a little snow this week and some heavy rain and there was not much on the truck, so I didn't clean the snow off the windshield as good as normal.

Well a few minutes later while driving down the street the left windshield wiper stopped working, but the right one was.
After a few choice words I get out and look and the wiper arm has fallen off..

A few more WTF's and realize that it just needs to be put back on. No problem.

Drive a few more miles and the right one falls off. WTF

Pull over and inspect it better and found that there is a release button on the underside of the arm..

I guess the heavy wet snow that I didn't clean off pushed the release and caused the arm to push out and off the mount..

So Make sure you clear the snow out from under the arm during the winter...

I don't know why they need a quick release for this in the first place.. It is not like we need to remove them...
It takes more effort to remove the wiper blades than it does to remove the whole arm...Go figure..

 

Wow, too weird. Just another reason to live here in southeast Texas!!

 

Thanks for the info, I sometimes don't bother clearing it out when I'm in a rush... I'll remember to next time though.

 

Ditto, good info dude!

Just one of those little things that we normally don't think about. The other side of my warped mind is laughing my butt off...because I can see this happening to me and I too would be questioning the damn Ford engineers again!

 

Heading to Lake Tahoe in a few days, for a few days... I'll keep that one in mind in case my wiper arms start falling off!

 

theirs also a little keystock in there to keep wiper in place I was driving in snow storm and melting snow on windshield forms ice in indented area around wiper arm and pushes arm off stupid design I'm contemplating putting self tapping screw through wiper arm to post to prevent happening again.poor design.

 

this happened to me today, it actually came off, I popped it back on without thinking about putting it in the correct position, and now I cant pop it back off....arg

 

I did the same thing a few years ago, but didnt have the arm pop off. The wiper blade holder would keep coming off the wiper arm. First time I thought it was the blade holder. Put a new one on, was fine for its life. Put another blade on, this one would come off again. I wound up pinching the hook on the arm a little and now it seems to have fixed that problem. Now I never use my wipers to clear snow, unless its a dusting and light snow.

 

Here in Western MA we have had our share of wet heavy snow.
I made the mistake of starting the truck with wipers on, heard a loud bang under the dash & no more wipers.
opened it and found the drive arm bent & the ball & socket popped off.

Super fun working on it in the driveway @ 10 degrees!

now having problems finding a new part, seems the drive arm is discontinued...
tempted to bent the drive arm back in shape & reuse it.

Might be a tough battle pressing the ball back into the socket .....

2004 F350 CC 4WD
1986 F250 4WD (still going strong)

 

Hammer it straight and see if you can pop it back on. The cold will fight you. Fight back!

ETA: I try to remember to lift wipers off the glass of any vehicle I plan to drive when the sleet storms are coming. Learned my lesson by having ice rip my blades off and getting arm scratches on the windshield.

 

better is not always better...

many have damaged the wiper system... snow weight, ice.... etc.

be thankful.. WE do not have vacuum wipers anymore. I so hated them.
I also remember the "Arm" was bolted on....