When I got my '40 Ford project however many years ago. It came with some replacement parts. One was a Rock Valley Auto electric wiper kit. In a box dated 1989. Unless I am doing something wrong it really doesn't fit. Has anyone used this? What did you do to make it fit?
We sold lots of those kits over the years. I even installed one in my own 40 Std. Coupe. Just bolt in place of the vacuum motor and hook up the arms and electrics. Chances are it could be another application mispackaged or misnumbered.
Back to the wipers. Tried every way I could think of to make the motor fit. Just not going to do it. Pasadenahotrod do you have any pictures?
If you couldn't hook it up it is likely a 41-48 kit mismarked as a 40. The correct one for 1940 Passenger and 40-41 pickups could easily be installed without instructions and simply hooked up to the stock wiper rods.
I installed the Rock Valley unit in my coupe back in 1988; it installed easily, and works okay, but it only has one speed, and the wiper arm sweep adjustment only allowed me to get a full sweep on the driver's side (the passenger side does a quarter sweep... straight up, and back down!). When I built dad's 1940 Tudor, I bought and installed the Newport Engineering unit with the optional momentary wiper switch. The Newport unit allowed for better sweep adjustment, and with the optional momentary switch, it works just like a modern wiper system. Best regards, push_rod
I'm a strong supporter of Newport Engineering's Wipers. They fit perfect and work great. Had one in both my 39 Chevy, and my 40 Ford. Both worked just like they were made for the cars.
I installed electric wiper motor from Speedway and install new towers with new arms. No matter what I do I cannot get the whole mechanism to work properly. The sweep sucks the park sucks. I complained to speedway they sent me a new motor. same problem. I had to drill holes in the pass arm just to keep it from jamming. Has anyone else had these problems? Im at my wits end.
Buy American, Newport Wipers are the best and they back them up. Speedway and Drake are cheap Chinese knockoffs.
Newport in at least 7-8 40's great fit and work well-no issues pay close attention to wiper tower mechanisms. Had a set of Drakes freeze up in the body--only a couple of years old. Now I take apart orig ones, have rechromed and reassemble-seem to work well. Baxter Ford used to redo them as well may years ago. I don't think there are any available repo any longer-been scarce for several years.
I once sent one of my towers to Drake needing a chain replacement and they repaired it. I think it was $65 at the time.
The Jalopy Journal
