The spindle seized last week on my rear wiper and I was determined to get it going again without buying new. I tried a penetrating lubricant on it, after taking off the wiper arm, and after a few hours, though it was moving again, it was squeaking like crazy and so I decided to pull it out.
I removed the 6 gearbox phillips-head screws on the back and saw a very clean and greased mechanism, located the gear attached to the spindle and started to wiggle it out. The main gear and gear arm then fell on me and to the ground.
I removed the spindle, and using a very fine sandpaper, removed the rust, greased the spindle with the wheel bearing grease I had and re-inserted it.
I had a hilarious time getting the gear and gear arm back in the right place, so snap a picture of it before it falls out, so you can put it back in correctly the first time and not the 4 times it took me to get it right (it was wiping the bottom of the hatch the first 2 times)
I also put a thick grease on the outside of the spindle before I put its cover back on, to keep water out for, I hope, a very long time.
