FWIW a follow up. Turned out the 15mm nut was loose on the drivers side shaft where the wiper arms attach just like you suggested Rocky. It worked for half a stroke the other day in heavy snow after I let it warm up in the driveway for at least 15 minutes, so the wipers were not frozen to the glass. It's a tapered fit, not spline.
It just came back from the body shop after a big ole deer ran into my wife on the drivers front fender and dented every panel on the drivers side. I worried about it being totaled but not even close my body guy said. Actually the driver side quarter panel was not dented and had rust bubbles popping thru.
Our body guy/shop owner friend said they had to paint/blend into the quarter to paint it, that they would grind out the rust and repair it and paint the quarter which he did. The whole drivers side was repainted including the hood which had a dent from the deers head.
So I'm not unhappy with the body guys, they did aq great job, it looks like new. Easy fix...just so you know.
And our deductible was only 100 bucks since deer colusions are not considered preventable. We were lucky all the way around.
I just went out in the rain to look at it in the 4th quarter when the Bengals decide to lose.