New to this truck. I checked the service manual but couldn't find anything on the subject oddly.

My wipers don't work but when I turn them on I see the linkage moving detached through the cowl vents. I have to get the cowl off to fix it. I took the screws off but there are two rivet looking things on the ends. Assume these need to come off to get the cowl off.

What's the technique for removal? Why do they use these instead of two more screws? I'm not trying to break anything here!

This is a pic of what I'm talking about.

 

I had the same question a while back. I wound up marking the hood hinge position and removing the hood to access those fasteners. Then I drilled a new hole next to the fastener ( the same size as the holes the screws came out of ). Finally, I just drilled out the fasteners as the cowl will not move with them in place. You will have to run down a couple more screws to reattach the cowl later.

 

Damn, that's frustrating just to re-attach a wiper linkage. It looks like it would come off without hood removal? Still don't understand why there aren't screws all the way across.

 

There probably is a way to remove those fasteners without removing the hood. Maybe a good sharp chisel and a ball peen hammer. I removed my hood to make it real easy to get to everything without beating it up. There is no apparent justification as to why these trucks are built the way they are. There is, however, lots of satisfaction in knowing we can overcome their little mistakes and fix the things we need to fix. ( MORE WAYS THAN ONE TO SKIN A CAT ) Good luck with your fix!

 

Haha, ok. Thanks for the help. I'll have to get to work on it!

 

The center is held with 3 screws. I cut a stubby Phillips screw driver down to access those. There is an "Z" shaped screw driver that you can buy that would do the same thing. On each end of the cowl there is a tab, a flat blade screw driver underneath the cowl will pop them right out. While you have the cowl out, is a good time to get in there with a vacuum cleaner and get alot of debris out.

 

Great thanks for the help. I already removed the screws with this little guy. http://www.lowes.com/pd_338552-22328...7C1&facetInfo=

Love that tool. Are the "tabs" you're referring to what I pictured in my original post? They look like small white rivets. Did you pry up the cowl itself with the flat screwdriver or the little rivet thing, then the cowl?

 

Got it off and fixed my wipers! I used a long, sharp flat head screwdriver and a mallet to tap the rivet heads off. Was able to do it without damaging the paint.

 

Glad to see you got it. That is the way I do it as well or gently lift up on the screwdriver. Hope you got all the debris out while it was off as well. That is where the water drains and then goes to the edge of the cowl and down behind the rear of the front fenders.

 

Yeah cleaned it out, wasn't much in there aside from dust surprisingly. I tried prying them out a couple different ways but nothing worked because the rivets were too old and brittle. Had the shear the heads off.