Its actually quite easy.
In your navbar template, find
Code:
vbmenu_register("navbar_search");
and replace with
Code:
vbmenu_register("navbar_search", true);
Find
Code:
vbmenu_register("usercptools");
and replace with
Code:
vbmenu_register("usercptools", true);
The ", true" controls the display of the arrow image. Where this code is present the arrow will not appear.