<hr style="color:#D1D1E1; background-color:#D1D1E1" size="1"> I would like to keep my vacuum wipers on my 59 Apache. Yes I know they can be problematic and electric is the way to go, etc. etc. But I think I'd like to give these a try first. The wipers rise up and then just stay put. When I turn the switch off, they go back down. Currently I have two hoses coming out the back of the wiper motor. One goes to the intake manifold directly below the carb. The second comes through the firewall and just dangles there from the PO. I've read about them being hooked up to the fuel pump, but mine obviously does not have those connections. I cannot for the life of me find where the second hose should be hooked up. I've searched and searched and searched... any help would be appreciated as always!
When I get home I can look in the shop manual or assembly manual. I'm a little surprised that your '59 has vacuum wipers though. I thought that after '56 or '57 all the wipers were electric. Both my '58s have electric wipers.
Hello fellow new guy, as far as I know, the second hose is just an inlet for air. It's probably routed inside the cab just to insure that clean, dry air gets pulled thru the unit. If you put your finger over that hose while the wipers are running, they will stop. The vacuum "motor" probably just needs cleaned out and "re-greased". Vaseline worked good for mine. hope this helps, Ron.
agreed, try unhooking that hose first to see if it works. That is how you are going to troubleshoot it.
I usually force some auto trans fluid inside and use the wipers to force the fluid around inside. If that doesn't work it may need to be disassembled cleaned and lubed.
Saxman- I looked in both manuals and they only show one hose going to the wiper that is what had me so baffled. Everyone else- Sounds like I will be removing the hose tonight and just let it intake air from inside the cab instead of the engine bay. I will probably end up having to remove the motor and give it a good douching.
I'm probably a tad late on this thread, I just saw it today and joined HAMB. Gator: The loose hose should be connected to the fuel pump vacuum port. It is not for fresh air, venting or for any other reason. OEM type fuel pumps have vacuum ports to provide vacuum to the opposite side of the motor. Seems somebody replaced the fuel pump with an aftermarket pum that doesn't have the port. There should have been a ridgid line coming off the pump along the block to the firewall and the hose connects to it. Apparently the ridgid line has been removed. Vacuum motors use opposing vacuum to operate the paddle. I wouldn't recommend forcing any thing, fluid or otherwise into the motor, esp transmission fluid. That could damage the paddleafter prolonged operation with it in there. I hope you got your issue resolved.
Mine had the secondary line to the fuel pump, new pump didn't accommodate it when changed. Truck had set for 20+ years, opened up "motor" and cleaned it out, lightly applied small amount of white lithium grease. Still working as good as a vacuum wiper does 14 years later. Oh yea, don't forget the Rain-X!! Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
tjet- can you confirm that you have one hose? Apache FS or Cables_Mill, do you by chance have photos of the 2 hose set up?
Most vac wipers after the '30's are hosed like this: One hose comes from manifold to the switch/valve that turns the thing on. From there, two hoses go to wiper motor, usually two different sizes...one provides vac for normal running, the second smaller one provides vac to one side of the flipper only when you turn wiper off and pulls it back to parked position. If run hose is properly hooked up and wiper only goes through half its cycle, the problem is likely in the back of the motor where there is a little can containing a flip-flop valve arrangement that cycles vac from one side of paddle to the other to reverse motor when it reaches full travel... If you think that is what's happening after you get the hoses in place, I'd have to see the innards of that, as I'm only really familiar with much older ones. A common problem in them is simply that the flipperator goes a bit too far due to deterioration of the soft pad it hits and so goes past the reversal ports...in general, that stuff is rarely broken, just needs some tinkering and cleaning. If you take any of that valve gear apart, be VERY careful to record where everything goes...it can be utterly baffling if you just dump it all out.
Thank you for that Bruce, the vacuum wipers on my '59 Galaxie don't work right, and I was wondering about an electric conversion. Now I'll strip mine and attempt a repair instead
Most early fifties cars have the setup I described, some of the last cars to get vac had single line but with a switching system on motor to divert vac to park mode. All will have some sort of Rube Goldberg valving to reverse vac feed to paddle on each stroke, and all after the 1930's will have either what I described or an integral valve that parks the thing when offed. All stuff that you can eventually figure out by close scrutiny.
the vacuum wiper "motor" on yhe galaxie seems to have two ports as well. One was hooked up to the inlet manifold but the other wasn't connected to anything. Any suggestions? As a thought, what would happen if I ran both ports off the inlet manifold? Nothing? anything?
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