Blake,

I highly suspect that your problem is where the wiper arms attach to the
shafts ... very common.  The inner part of the wiper arm attachment is
made of soft metal.

Pop off the little round caps and remove the nuts with a 10mm wrench.
Pry .. wiggle the arms off the shafts.  Clean all of the soft metal out
of the splines of the wiper shafts which will surely be there.  Getting
the old stuff off the splines is really important.

If you're lucky, there will still be enough of the soft metal in the
attachment sockets of the arms so that when you put them back on the
splines will cut new grooves and you'll be back to normal.  Sometimes
adding a small washer under the 10mm nut will be necessary to tighten
the arm back down properly.

Mike

Blake Sartin wrote:
> ...and now they just flop around on the windshield.  I accidentally left the
> wipers on last night when it was raining, and this morning (when it was
> below freezing) they were still on when I started it up. :(
>
> I assume that the gear is broken in the wiper motor.  Crap.
>
> The motor runs fine, but the wipers do not engage.
>
> Is this a job for a new wiper motor, or is the gear replaceable?  And I can
> only guess that getting the motor out from under that dash is just going to
> be lovely.
>
> So far this "buying a Vanagon" thing has been a daily learning experience.
> But I guess it was the same way with my Bus.
>
> Thanks all,
>
> Blake Sartin
> Moderator, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bus-life
> All Fridays, All The Time. No Tech Talk!
> '69 Westfalia
> '84 Vanagon
> Athens, GA
>