96 Jetta TD, wiper control arms "falling off"

Oct 14, 2009 7 Replies
H

My wipers are currently inoperable on my Jetta, and when I pop open the hood and check, the arms appear to have fallen off the "crank" that connects to the wiper motor (which works fine). Re-connecting the arms just gets me another swipe or two before they fall off again.



The arms are relatively cheap... around $16 apiece. But I'm wondering which is more likely to have worn down too much... the arms or the crank?



Worst case, I buy the arms and they fall off too, whereupon I know my crank needs to be replaced (around $25 new). But does anyone have any experience with this problem?


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P

Are they not supposed to have a retaining clip? (I'm not sure about a

96...) I've seen the clip break, fall off, and if you didn't know you'd never realize it was missing!
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H

I don't remember a clip... I thought the arms just jammed on, but I've never had cause to notice. the parts guy at the local VW dealership had no idea, either.

I really need to dig out my Hayes manual (moved recently...)

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P

Most (not all!) ball and socket joints do have clips either as part of the socket, or attached to the socket part.

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D

I believe that on the 1996 Jetta, those linkage arms just pop onto the wiper motor linkage and pivot linkages. No clips! Now the pivots have clips keeping the pivot shaft in the cylinder along with a couple of washers and rubber seal.

Yes just buy some new linkage arms, pop them on and wipe your troubles away! ;-)

JMHO

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H

Yeah, I finally took the time to pop the whole assembly out last night, and a close look shows no pin at all (and my arms are pretty worn down where they go around the crank).

I'll probably grab a new pair of arms today.

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H

Uh... let's just pretend I worded this differently, please?

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