Technical WINDSHIELD WIPERS

Electric on my 40

 

For all the guys with early cars that use the 10" blades, check out Newport; they sell the 'real' 10" blades, not those 'squeegee' style blades that everyone else has and that are barely one notch above useless. RainX only works up to a point...

 

On my coupe I've modified an electric motor, wiper posts, and linkage from a modern vehicle. I had to fab an idler bracket to reverse the direction of the right side wiper so the two wipers would travel towards and away from each other as they operated. All the modern stuff have the blades move in the same direction. The idler works OK, but I do have to pull the cover and lube the idler every few months. That system has been functioning for the last 10 years and 70,000 miles. It did take a lot of time to get it right.

My new project does not have anything required for wipers remaining. I have all the stuff from the same modern vehicle I used on the coupe, but it doesn't fit as well in the new project. I really wish Newport would start making full kits that can b

 

Inexpensive Speedway Motors wiper for the WISCONSIN STATE PATROL, and RAIN-X for actually driving in the rain!

 

My pickup originally had vacuum wipers but could be ordered either way. Eventually I got tired of the lackluster vacuum equipment and ordered the missing O.E.M. parts for the electric option. All it took was one extra piece of linkage, the motor, and the switch which came with the wiring to the motor. I made-up the rest of the wiring and now it has 2 speed factory electric windshield wipers just like it could have come with in 1958.

Lou

 

I have a home made set up with a vw motor and ford arms and blades ( a lot better than the rubber strip that gm used). But with rainx I seldom need the wipers.

 

Do you still have the truck Lou? HRP

 

That truck will always be here. It was, originally, the road service truck for the Esso station you see in my avatar.

Happy Motoring!
Lou

 

Aquapel, works great

 

Oh, great. Ordering a pair of those.
Thanks.



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On my 48 Willys CJ-2A build since I live in Western Oregon and it rains anywhere from a light mist to a torrential downpour. I went with a Specialties Power Window cable drive kit. Big PITB trying to find a place to mount the motor and hide the transmission boxes. 2spd intermittent a few days from now I should know how well it works.,

 

Rain X

 

My '40 Tudor has a 6 volt wiper I bought from Dale Greer in Tri Cities WA years ago before he passed away. Fits like the stock vacuum motor and works good.
My other cars have none or a simple hand wiper except the '51 Fords, they have stock vacuum. Not so great.

Dave

 

Rain X and a hand crank
My vacuum wiper motor also has a hand crank

 

Wind deflector screens down here don't require a wiper system here however cars with roofs and closed cars do. Good enough for those wet days, just add side curtains

 

In my 36 coupe I used an aftermarket cable drive set up .
Now a smart fella would mount the motor drive in the boot so you could run the drive cable and tubing
without sharp bends/corners. However I chose to mount it under the dash ,much tighter to get the cable and tube up through the windscreen pillar.
I would also get a set up in which you could adjust the amount of sweep

 

For a pre- '47 GM truck, American Bosch school bus motors bought from the wrecking yards when they still had old stuff. For cars & trucks with base mounted transmissions, a carefully cleaned & lubed factory wiper motor works fine for me. It's an acquired skill to operate the throttle so you can see, sort of like driving a crash box truck ...

 

I used a MG wiper motor in my cab over.

 

The same Lucas DR3-type motor I've got in my Morris? Mine has been dead reliable; it's simple, rebuildable, and easy to set up as regards parking etc. Mine is the stock single-speed but two-speed versions are available. I've thought before that the push-pull arrangement could open up possibilities as regards places to mount the motor.


Apart from it eliciting elaborate pencil-licking from roadside officialdom in my part of the world, I've never been very keen on chemical solutions on their own. I might be able to rig a wiper-motor linkage, at least I would be if I could get up off my arse, but I don't think I'd be able to whip up a batch of polydimethylsiloxane in old paint tins. I may be wrong, though.

In line with my preference for as few electrical systems in a car as possible I've had the idea of running a vacuum wiper motor off positive air pressure. Pneumatics work by pressure differences, be they between depression (vacuum) and atmospheric or between atmospheric and positive pressure above atmospheric. A vacuum motor should work if we could feed pressure to everything which normally sees atmospheric, and vent to atmospheric via what is usually the vacuum source. The advantage of this is that a greater pressure difference is available than the maximum of about 14.7psi which is possible with a vacuum setup, which allows a second, higher speed to be added, and the speed can easily be made variable by using an adjustable regulator. The fact that each sweep action is triggered by the motor reaching the park position makes it possible to have intermittent action by introducing a damper to delay the very last part of the wiper travel: a cabinet-door soft-close damper might work for that.

 

Peterbilt trucks(I’m sure others) used wiper motors that ran off air pressure. Not sure what was actually needed in terms of pressure to make them work, might not be practical in an automobile

 

Met a guy who rebuilds Trico vacuum motors. Going to give him a try on mine.

 

Got any pics Frank? Looking at doing this on my 40

 

What setup is that?

 

Newport engineering for me- even splurged and bought the ‘two speed with adjustable delay’ option. Convenience means something on a long drive in the rain.

 

Those are either Trico-Folberth or Sprague. They're comparable in size to Trico vacuum units, and they should work fine with an air suspension pneumatic setup, even one with an electric compressor.

Trico-Folberth:


Sprague:


I think a Trico-Folberth motor would look right at home in a hot rod interior.

 

No pics. Too long ago. My wipers are above the windshield. Your '40 wipers are below. Not much in common.. The beetle my wipers came from had the wipers below the windshield so you might be able to use more of the VW system than I could.

 

I remember on the 27 Model T coupe I built I had the windshield drilled to fit a wiper motor.
I was just thinking of the inclement weather we get here in the UK.
Mind it was silly really , No fenders, no hood, what odds would it have made
Rain X all the way.

 

Don't know the source it came with the car I installed the motor and switch.

 

I have all of 8 inches of windshield glass so the usual wiper arms weren't going to cut it for my roadster. Seeing as I only really need it to meet the letter of the law for inspection I cut down the one that I got from Speedway. It is one of those clamp on the frame types that came with the arm and a squeege wiper blade. I think if I ever really needed it it would have a hell of a time actually wiping anything as it looks so puny! Oh, and it can't be installed with the top up on the car either so I have the choice of top up and no wiper or top down and wipers! Here is a couple before and after shots.

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