Help! 1996 xlt rear wiper arm

I want to take off the rear wiper arm. I tried with a flat head screw driver by pushing the tab all the way over toward the wiper blade but it won't budge off. I know its not rusted in there. I don't know what else to do? Any suggestions??? Thanks

Arm removal

I had the same problem on my 97 Mounty. I used a pair of needle-nosed vise grips to pull the tab over as far as it would go, but it was like the arm was welded on. I rummaged through my toolbox and found that an interior body panel removal tool fits perfectly under the arm and around the shaft. With the locking tab out of the way and little pressure on the handle of the panel removal tool toward the hatch, the arm eased off with no further problems.

I cleaned the splined shaft and the arm, lubricated both parts, and they slid back together like magic.

As a side note, everybody (including the Ford dealer) told me I needed a new arm and possibly a new motor since no amount of adjustment or bending of the arm could get the wiper to make contact with the hatch glass.

I was taking the arm off just to see how to do it before I spent any money and what I found was that the hinge of the arm, and most of the end shell that goes down over the splined shaft was full of beach sand! I spread the ears on the end piece of the hinge with a knife blade and used a compressed air hose to blow all of the sand out. I followed that with a liberal dose of WD-40. After reassembly, the wiper works like it is brand new at a total cost of about 15 minutes of my time.

NJMike