The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Vacuum boost pumps

On my 51 Chev PU, I plumbed in an air tank for a semi-trailer with check valve coming off the manifold. The vacuum end went to the hydrovac, wipers and AC vacuum actuators and for a while to the manifold side of the fuel pump vacuum booster. This worked fine until the wiper motor wore out and I didn't have enough good parts to fix it. The fuel pump eventually began sucking prodigious amounts of oil and so did it's replacement only a short while later. I gave up on mechanical fuel pumps and went electric -- wipers and fuel pump. Only trouble since has been a failed electric fuel pump that cost me a tow off the freeway. Wipers work well. Get the delay switch. It's worth the price.

I long ago had a 50 Stude with vacuum wipers. It came to me with a vacuum tank screwed under the floor and a check valve. It worked tolerably well on short hills in town but on the road I would have to lift my foot off the gas pedal to recharge the tank every so often. Eventually I found a vacuum boost fuel pump and took the other stuff off. I drove it daily for ten years in rainy Seattle. Wipers worked fine when I sold the car years later. I still have the check valve.