Hi,

I am waiting for my book to arrive, thanks to all of you for the help until then......

I am having trouble taking off the wiper arms on my 1969 Bird. I was told their is a clip under the bottom of the arm where it connects.

what do you do....HELP!

Garz & Son - 1969 Firebird

I`ll have to check on my wipers,but I think you have to lift the arm,then take a screwdriver and slide the tab outward then remove the arm from the wiper stud.you may have to wiggle it a bit or if you can`t get it loose,you might have to gently pry it off,carefully as you don`t want to damage the cowl plate or wiper assembly.

Go to your local parts store and get a wiper arm removal tool. It should cost less than $10. Like Darron says, there is also a small tab that needs released but it's still hard to remove the arm without the tool.

I'v heard of removing the tab, but it's pressed in, and it's not designed to be removed. I played with a removed arm this winter to see what the tab removal was all about. It didn't get removed because after considerable yanking and studying of the way it's installed, it's not designed to be removed.

JCWhitney has the exact wiper removal tool (Lyisle sp) that most professional chassis men have for about $3. I paid more for mine becuse of the racketeering of middlemen providing spealized tools. It's money well spent because it takes more than 3 dollars of effort to sand out a scratch in primer, let alone topcoat.

Here are the tabs...

The tab pulls right out. Then you stick it back in place when you put the arm back on. Works like a charm. I don't think just pushing out on the tab will do it. Vikki, go ahead and yank one out. You'll see that was what it was designed to do.

Its a pain in the butt to remove these!!!

I've done it 4-5 times now, but each time was mentally and emotionally challenging!

I've recently been through the angst too. I used a screw driver and a pry bar, with rags intended to protect the finish. When the wiper arm popped off it flew neatly past the protective rags and chipped my cowl.

Sure wish I knew about the $3 tool before I tried it.

Not trying to be rude or anything but my answer is bullcrap to "those tabs pull right out." This winter, wasting valueable time instead of doing something productive, I tried to pull the tabs from either wiper because I always weclome alternative methods.

Based on my professional experaince, no one in the industry removes wipers in such fasion. And basaed on my presonal experaince with trying the alternative, I tried pulling the tabs out, with the wipers removed. If you cannot pull the tabs out with the wiper arm removed, it's safe to guess that you cannot pull the tabs out with wiper installed. If I really wanted to remove the tabs, I could have pulled harder, but I couldn't see tearing something up. The point is that it is supposed to be a slip out without issues, something that it's not.

Here's how the tool works.





Lifts right off--spent tenfold the time uploading one of the 2 pictures than I did with the r&i of the arm. You don't do a thing with the tab. The tool unloads the spring. Once the spring is unloaded, just like anything thats held in place by spring tensiton, it falls off in your hand. If you release the clip, you still have the spring loading against the arm, and the spring tension, not the tab, is what creats the problem with removing the arm.

Not to be rude either , but my tabs pulled right out, popped the arms off and didn't have to hold the tabs at the same time, then reinserted the tabs and popped them right back on. Maybe mine are different from your's, but I doubt it. Do your's any way you want.

Bob,

It could be age, weather exposure, rust or lube that makes some pop off and others a real bear.

I have mastered the "padded vice-grips and flat tip extraction" method now and no longer scratch the paint like the first time I tried this. Its like pulling a tooth - slow, methodical, wiggle back and forth a bit.....POP...there she goes.