Arguing the electric vs vacuum bit with some people is as
fruitless as which is the correct engine color or whether you
should vote red or blue or that a Ford or Chevy is the best car
on the market and on and on. For some illogical reason some
people believe that that at one time vacuum wipers were as
reliable as our modern day wipers.
It's pretty rare that Charlie and I agree on anything but I gotta
side with him 100% on this one. If you are building a driver and
expect to use your truck on an everyday basis where you will
encounter bad weather, electric is the ONLY way to go.
There is no arguing the fact that everyone of the modern day
transportation vehicle manufacturers in the world have cast the
vacuum wiper aside decades ago and adopted electric wipers as
standard equipment.
I was a die hard purist, and still am in most cases, but then
again I don't make a habit of driving my truck in bad weather.
I've only been caught in the rain a few times in the last ten
years that I've been driving my stock 1950, 3604. And each time
I've cursed myself for being so bull headed and not giving in
to the electric wipers upgrade.
Some of you guys are probably much more particular about your
Trico vacuum wiper motor "rebuild" than I am, but here's a
series of pictures of the rebuild that I did on one for my truck
several years ago.
A few facts first. New gaskets are not available, new power
pistons are not available, the material in the piston sandwich
is NOT leather, it is a fabric that has been impregnated with
what, I have no idea. I think it might have been a
graphite/rubber compound. When the piston is assembled new, it
was potted in a grease, my guess is, that was to supply the
piston with lubricant for the life of the motor, which was
probably only designed to be several years. Simply coating the
interior of the housing when disassembling your motor with
grease is not adequate and it will soon be wiped dry. The rubber
exhaust valve will be dried out and it is part of the piston
assembly.
So...flip thru the pictures to see what your in for and good
luck:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/spare_tyco_vacuum_motor&page=allThe result of this effort was, that the motor would lift you off
the ground when hooked up to a vacuum pump that is used for
pumping down a HVAC system or Bell Jar. Installed in the truck
with its freshly rebuilt 216, producing maximum vacuum with new
'vacuum' hose and properly sealed fittings, it is a leak free
system that will hold vacuum. All of the linkage was removed,
cleaned, inspected for wear, lubricated and reinstaled with no
binding, in other words the linkage works freely before being
hooked up to the motor. The wipers struggle in anything other
than maximum vacuum and stall when ever throttle is applied.
Not looking to argue guys, just the experience I've had with
Trico vacuum wipers, which is just the same as the experience
that I had with them back in the day when I started driving in
the 50's.
Denny Graham
