I have done the expensive electric swap on a 53 (not sure if its the same) and was not impressed with the conversion, the arm wouldn't lock on to the shaft well But it worked. I thought I was going to break the allen wrench tightening it enough.
Back in the day we used to add a vacuum tank to the system and it helped the wipers out a lot. When Vacuum wipers are working like they should, they do a pretty good job. But not as good as electric ones. I'm not sure how well the vacuum wipers will work unless you can control the vacuum loss from being hooked into the crank case. These engines were not emission control friendly.
If you are good at a little fabricating you can put a rear window wiper motor from a mid 90s s10 chevy blazer in there. They are cheap enough, and you gain intermittent to boot. Just have to make a couple brackets. You could use the same arm that's on the vacuum motor, but the sweep is just a tad short. But the expensive kit the sweep was short also.
Last edited by LeeP; 03/18/2018 11:45 AM.
