Howdy All,
I am trying to remove the wiper arms off my 97 2.5TL. I want to repaint them as they are badly faded. I took both nuts off them, but they do not want to budge? How are these held in there? What am I missing here? Is there some type of special tool needed for these vehicles? Thank you for any help

BTW, I tried searching the forums all last night with no help.

 

As long as you removed the nuts then the arms will pull off. They are going to be hard to get off due to design. No special tools are needed just some brute force. Just make sure you pull em straight up from the shaft so you don't one, bend the arm and two ,break the shaft. They are on there so tight because the wiper arms are made of a soft metal compound and the hole is actually angled cut. When you tighten the arms onto the shaft the shaft actually cuts into the arm making its own gear mesh. They design it this way so that if you turn the wipers on with lots of snow or when they are frozen to the windshield it actually strips the grooves cut into the arm as opposed to burning up the motor or wiper transmission. This usually results in one arm not moving when you turn on the wipers. To fix, all you have to do is tighten down the loose arm and it cuts new grooves.

With that in mind, once you get the arms off, do not overtighten when reinstalling.

hope that helps.

 

GREAT! THAT WORKED! THANKS

 

With summer coming I decided to paint my wipers and I got the passenger side wiper off no problem but I can't even get the nut off of the driver's side wiper to take it off. Has anyone else had this problem? I tried turning as hard as I could but still can't get it off. If anyone knows I'd appreciate some help. THANKS.

 

Turn it up so it is vertical.

Then bend the arm back.

Then turn.

It worked for me.

 

if ur just goin to paint the wiper arms just cover the surroundings of the TL with news paper and tape..

 

That's what I did, painted the arms on the car. Use a lot of newspaper and tape, the more the better so you do not get the paint overspray in your car.

About 8 years ago I made the stupid mistake of spray painting a ceiling fan in the garage with my TL right beside it. Guess what, to this day, I have minute droplets of beige paint in the car. It is not noticebable but when you look at it close, there are millions of paint spots. I probably have to clay it to get rid of it. I am getting lazy keeping up with my paint...bad bad lazy.

 

I know what you mean about getting lazy keeping up with paint. I used to wash my cars all the time, wax them 6-8 times a year.

Fawk I don't even remember the last time the RL was clean.

 

Every now and then I wash the cars, ok I must admit every 3 weeks. But the last time I had it waxed was years, like 5 years. Getting lazy. Heck I still get good reviews though on how clean the car is.

 

Thanks, I'll try your advice. And if I still can't get it I'll just use newspaper and tape.