Looking at the cost of new wiper arms these days and reading stories of wipers flying off, I decided to try and fix the little lock tabs which are supposed to keep the arms on the spindles. Mine had lost tension and not holding them on at all. No leverage can be had to bend them back in place.
The fix was to gently tap the rivet that holds the clip in the assembly with a die so it flattens back down and puts tension back on the clip in the right direction. This is not enough to repair it completely because it is a weak rivet so I then layered some epoxy over the rivet and filled in the bottom area cavity where it attaches and just up slightly on the clip itself but not enough to keep the clip from flexing. If the rivet doesn't respond then just secure the clip against the edge where it should be and fill with epoxy as above. This could also be used as a preventive measure if your clips are still working (for now).
Dried overnight and then I mounted the arms just half way on its spindle so I know where it will fall on the windshield, adjusted accordingly so they are parallel to the hood then pressed on all the way. The clip now keeps them from coming off without a screwdriver to press the tab back away to release. I don't know how many on/offs it will hold for, but seems to work well enough to keep these priceless objects on the car.
The fix was to gently tap the rivet that holds the clip in the assembly with a die so it flattens back down and puts tension back on the clip in the right direction. This is not enough to repair it completely because it is a weak rivet so I then layered some epoxy over the rivet and filled in the bottom area cavity where it attaches and just up slightly on the clip itself but not enough to keep the clip from flexing. If the rivet doesn't respond then just secure the clip against the edge where it should be and fill with epoxy as above. This could also be used as a preventive measure if your clips are still working (for now).
Dried overnight and then I mounted the arms just half way on its spindle so I know where it will fall on the windshield, adjusted accordingly so they are parallel to the hood then pressed on all the way. The clip now keeps them from coming off without a screwdriver to press the tab back away to release. I don't know how many on/offs it will hold for, but seems to work well enough to keep these priceless objects on the car.