At 03:00 PM 8/19/2012, Dave Mcneely wrote:
>You know, this seems to be one of those devices where some engineer
>built something he liked, but isn't that great in the real
>world.  Why is the wiper assembly not made so that the motor drives
>a shaft that terminates with a hex fitting, and

That joint is intentionally the weak point of the system, so that
excessive force on the arm will destroy neither the arm nor the stuff
inside (the drive is a worm-gear motor that's not going to move no
matter what).  I first saw it on Japanese cars but I suspect that
whoever started it, the whole universe does it that way now.

Perhaps it shows up as a problem more on our vans because we have
that steep windshield with a handy step at the bottom for whatever
small animal wants a penthouse view, and the wipers are right out in
the open instead of protected against outside forces in general.

Yours,
David