53-54 Chevy 12v wiper tech *cheap*

You tired of those sad vacuum motors? Think wiping on rain-x ****s? Dont have a ****load of cash to go out and buy a "bolt in" fix? Check THIS out! And keep your cable and drum ***embly as well! And all for $20 bucks!

Im surprised how well it went together on the first try! It works like a champ and has two speeds. Check out the video down below to see it in action! Ill tighten everything up before it is completed, but it works like a dream.
The motor is just any 2 speed motor. I picked it out of a pile of used motors on a rack, so Im not sure what its out of. A two speed motor will have three wires. One ground, one 12v wire for fast speed and one wire that runs through a reducer for the slower speed. I did this on my 53, and Im sure this will work for many cars with a bit of tweeking.

1. I removed the barrel/cable ***embly to weld on this arm. Drilled a hole in the arm and bolted a bolt with a few nuts acting as spacers. Reinstall wiper ***embly but dont attach the cables back onto the drums just yet.

2. The motor I have has a threaded tip on it. So I welded a nut on the arm for the motor. Another bolt and nuts for the other end. Hiem joints are going to be used to fine tune everthing later if needed.

3. Shows the hiem joint and arm for motor.

4. Located and drilled out my holes for the motor to mount to from the inside, under the dash.

5. This shows the backside of the firewall. Notice the brace here needed to be cut to gain clearance for the motor. The brace was a 45 degree wedge. Youll see it in yours if you do this. Also, the 2 verticle holes parralell to the brace on the right side were already there and I used these holes to loop a zip tie through to hold the motor in place so I could bolt it up in the engine bay. If you have a buddy helping, you could skip that step.

6. Here is the motor in place. Plenty of clearance and yet, tucked up and away of anything, taking up little room. The vacuum lines here can be removed later, of course.

7. Here is the motor and the threaded tip I was telling you about earlier. Make sure that the center of the motor shaft is in line horizontaly with the center pivot of the wiper ***embly arm.

8. Notice the pink line showing the motor and wiper shaft are straight across from each other. You dont want the motor high or low or youll be making work for yourself later trying to figure it out. Also notice the webbing brace needed to be cut back to allow full travel of the motors arm rotating 360 deg.

9. Here you can see the need to remove the material for clearance. Now that both arms are installed and hiem joints installed, thread on a shank nut (or join nut) on each hiem joint. Now measure the distance from each shank nut. The distance is the measurement you will cut from metal tubing.

10. Here is the tubing and the shank nuts. You can use a regular nut, but I like using these when I can when welding them, it gives more area to weld on. Youll need to remove on hiem joint and thread it up into the nut, then thread the whole thing onto the other hiem joint still bolted to its arm. Slide the hiem joint back over the bolt on the other arm and tighten it down.

11.The end result should look something like this. I really like the clean and uncluttered look, no one sees the motor, and guys will see the arms and say, what the hell? haha!

12. Once youre all done trying everything out and making sure it works, just reinstall the cables back onto the drums. Kinda tricky to figure out at first, but youll figure it out. And no cable clearance issues with the motor at all. What a dream!! Now just replace the dash wiper knob with a two stage switch and an inline fuse and youve got it made!

Hope this helps someone!

 

Very cool! Good to know there alternatives to Rainx!

 

Or, go buy a '55-'56 wiper motor & bolt it on as is ...

 

Yea, I guess someone could just go do that. But the ***le of the thread is *cheap*! I have more inginuity than money.Anyone can just go buy a bolt in part, but to make something work from scratch and call it your own, thats where the real pride and satisfaction comes from.... for me anyway.

Plus, all the original 55-56 motors I came across were nasty junk or cost over 100 on ebay.

Im just p***ing on an idea that someone may find useful.

Thanks for the comment Chevy54

 

monster, those 49-54 set ups have been a nightmare for decades.
The set up you developed is effective, a well thought out system using the original drive cables, and frankly kinda neat......wish I was that ingenious.
Thanks for the tech tip

 

i spent $200 for the trick motor, now i have one wiper going the opposit way fo the other, sometimes cable stretches and wiper hangs up so i drive 70 MPH to blow rain off window and use rainX works great as the wipers dont!!!
honest i fixed it my self

 

Cool tech for someone with more sense than cents!

 

Thanks for the info.Tom (Tired Old Man)

 

very cool thanks

 

Very cool .Years ago when i was driving a 54 Chevy daily with no wiper motor and was broke someone gave a NOS va***e motor for a 47-53 Chevy truck they had .The motor was new ,only problem was it was for a truck.I rigged it up by welding an adapter between the truck motor and the car drive.Then bolted it in place.Luckily the motor he gave me had an adjustment on it to adjust the range of motion .I used it that way for two years till i sold the car and it worked fine.These are some of my favorite threads on here.Nice job on your electric conversion job .Some people think if its doesnt just bolt on out of a box ,it cant be done ...

 

Thanks for the tip. My vacc. motor works well but this is a good solution!

 

great solution!

 

I think if you have one wiper going the opposite direction that the cable for that side is wrapped the wrong way around the barrel, I had that problem when I first hooked up a set on my buddies '53.

 

Yea, you had the cables swapped for the barrel. Check out pic 12. You can do it on purpose too. You can remove both the right side cables, for the p***enger side wiper. Then pull on the lower cable to make the wiper swipe so that both are pointing to the p***enger side. Then, as pic 12 as reference, reconnect the lower cable to the upper barrel and visa versa.

 

Best tech I have seen in a while. Nice work.

 

Will the 55-56 work in a 51?

 

great tip!!!
thanks for posting it

 

I ***ume youre asking if a stock 12v wiper motor from a 55-56 will work in your 51? Im not sure, but you can look it up online. Look up the kits they sell and theyll tell you the years theyll work on. Or, you can save a ton of money and follow this tech. Its really pretty easy! Good luck!

 

Nice job! I was about to do the very same thing to my '53....

One thing to add is that you need to know how much throw you need. Make the arms too long or too short and it won't sweep right...

Also, they do make rod ends with built in studs for a cleaner look if desired.

 

Snarl, thanks!
Good points! Longer arms will make it sweep faster and shorter arms will sweep slower. Just make sure when youre making the arms, that they are of equal length from the center point of rotation.
Never knew about the rod ends with studs. Sounds cool! But, if you dont have those laying around, you can get by with the dirty look! haha!

 

For what its worth,i found out that a chevy astro van wiper motor works great on a 60 chevy with minor modifications.

 

Been driving with no wipers for a long time. Thanks for the awesome tech!

 

great how to very good info for me as well

 

I think its cool you made it and all, but isnt that on the firewall? I dont know if I want to be looking at that every time I open my hood?? Just my opinion. But cool you made it yourself! Good job!

 

Thanks to everyones kind words. Im glad this helped some of you out with your projects!

metalix, thats one of the funniest avatars Ive seen in a while! Im still chuckling!

robleticia, thanks for the props. And to answer your question, you bet its on the firewall! I love it! Its not stock and it works like a champ. I, for one, LOVE looking at it because I built it. I could of hid it, but why? I think it looks alot less boring than a big clunky 12v motor hangin on the firewall. I look forward to someone asking me about it at a show this summer. I think its odd ball stuff like this that will spark up a conversation! Who knows, Im an odd ball myself tho!
Cant wait till spring to cruise!

 

nope iv got a 51, and the wiper motor is under the dash not on the firewall.

i rigged up similar thing but for the under dash one. works ok but not awesome.

 

I put a '60's Dodge wiper motor on my '54. Much the same as shown here, but no welding. I made an arm out of wider flat iron, and ground it to fit in the channel so it couldn't slip out endwise, then put a strap across to the two mounting bolts to hold it in place. I didn't want to take all those cables and pulleys apart! It worked for years, no problem.

 

Monster~ I can see your point on everyone noticing it and the work you did. I just spent two days removing the fender to bumper gap created because I lowered my bumper to be flush with the apron. Alot of work that most people will NEVER notice. At least your hard work will be noticed and admired. Mine....not so much!

 

That's a cool video, I like the exposed linkage action!
Very well done there

 

Great low buck tech. What are the length measurements of each lever? This would save a lot of experimenting for others wanting to do this conversion.