Driver side wiper not working

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Feb 7, 2005 | 09:42 AM

KevVer

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Junior User

Joined: Jul 2003

Posts: 55

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From: Woodinville, WA

Driver side wiper not working

Hello,

I have a 1998 F150. The driver side wiper stopped working as of this morning. I can help it a bit and it will work so that tells me something in the linkage is slipping.

Can anyone tell me what the problem might be and how difficult it is to get to it to fix it? I want to decide if I can do it myself or take it somewhere to be done.

Thanks for any help,
Kevin

Feb 7, 2005 | 10:15 AM

PaulC

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Joined: Sep 2002

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While it's possible that it's a linkage problem, a more likely possibility is that the wiper arm is just loose. Many trucks have a deeply-splined mounting peg for the wiper arm, with a wiper arm having matching splines. Ford uses a system in which the mounting peg has extremely fine splines and no splines at all on the wiper arm. The good news of this system is that it allows the wiper to slip instead of breaking the linkage if you try to wipe six inches of heavy snow off the windshield. The bad news is what you're experiencing.

The cure? At the base of the wiper arm is a plastic cap. Remove the cap, exposing a nut. With the wiper switch in the "off" position and the passenger's wiper parked in it's usual spot, move the driver side wiper to it's usual spot and tighten the nut with a socket wrench. Pop the cap back on and you're done.

BTW, might as well give the passenger's wiper the same treatment as well.

Last edited by PaulC; Feb 7, 2005 at 10:18 AM.