The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Installing electric wipers on 1950 3100

Trying to install the electric wiper kit into a 1950 3100.

Mounting it was easy (considering you have to be a gymnast to work under the dash.

What I having trouble is adjusting the arms so that it give a fairly full swipe at the windshield.

I have loosened the allen head screws and adjusted the cross bar for the transmission arms to attach to, but don't get a full swing. 3/4 maybe is all I'm getting.

anyone have any tips or is that about it?

Thanks

Try placing the lever on the motor in the straight up position, then put the wider arms on the knurled knobs so that they are also in the straight up position.
Carl

Okay, I've been trying to go from a parked position with the motor.
I'll give that a try.

That is how you set up the vacuum wiper setup. I am only guessing that the electric ones would be similar.

This was a two solid week project for me. I can't count the number of times I pulled it out and put it back in. I have no great advice as it was purely trial and error. The kit could have had much better directions.

Good luck...

Thanks, it's working as good as it's going to I think. I started out having little movement at the wipers at all.

I've turned that little bar every direction I can think of and finally got 3/4 of the window wiped. Maybe that's all this one will do.

Acts like the lever the transmission arms hooks to with the spring clip is a shy short and not pulling the arms enough.

Since it has new glass on it I've been using clothes pins on the nub sticking through the cowl to see how much swing it had rather than running the wipers on the windshield.

I'm gonna ask the manufacturer if they have any tips.

Sorry I can't help with a cure Roy but I noticed a similar problem on the Art Morrison 'Farm truck'.
The o/a sweep was dreadful....

Sorry for the long video but you'll notice it in this @ 2 minutes 50 seconds.

That frankly would drive me nuts!

Yes sir. The sweep of the wipers in the video is the same as I have on the old 50 I've been working on.

I like for the wipers to pull down close to the windshield gasket when parked, and go almost to the side of the gasket when running.

The last two trucks I've put the electric wiper kits on has had this same problem. I can't get a full sweep.

Thanks, video makes me feel it may not be what I'm doing wrong after all.

Have you used the same motor setup on the last two trucks as well as this one? Have you seen someone else's setup that works better? What brand of motor are we talking about?

Ditto

I installed on in my 54 and at best the wiper swings from about 2:00 o'clock (parked) to about 11:00 o'clock on the full left swing.

Is the arm on the electric motor the same length as the one on the original vacuum motor?
If not, would matching the length of this arm with the original length solve the problem?
Are these electric motors supposed to auto-park when off?
We can fix anything. We are Bolters after all.
Carl

What Carl said.
A longer arm on the motor will increase the wiper stroke angle. Pretty easy fix. You might even consider building an adjustable length arm so you can fine-tune the stroke.

No original vacuum motor to compare the length of the lever on it, but that is what the problem is it seems. Or the sweep of the electic motor is not the same as the vacuum, but again no original to check it by. Was no vacuum motor in the truck.

And yes, the electric motor has auto park when turned off it returns to the down position.

The owner seems happy it works, so if he complains later I'll see about making the lever arms longer on the motor.

Thanks

Put one in the 52 1/2 ton after the Vacuum wiper motor failed. At first I had a good sweep on the passenger side and a narrow one on the driver side. After adjusting and looking at every bit in the system..I found an "indexing" adjustment. That seemed to fix the issue. A combination of the arm position and the motor position. Mine had a nut to clamp the motor to the bracket and a screw in a slot on the bracket.Fussed with both until the "park" position was straight up(in the truck) that seemed to do the trick. Getting under the dash was a whole 'nuther kind of torment. Good luck with yours.

What wiper motor conversion are you guys using? I recently installed one (from LMC) and it sweeps almost too far - all the way from the lower rubber to almost hitting the side rubber. It required careful adjustment to prevent contacting either. There was an adjustment that Steve refers to (above) but I just left it as it was.

BTW, ditto on the "in-and-out" a dozen times and being a contortionist under the dash!

Put a wide board on a saw horse or similar support at the same level as the floor board and run the board into the cab. I put a moving blanket on the board. The first time I did this, I thought I was going to fall asleep it was so comfortable!

GREAT idea! But why didn't you tell me BEFORE I wracked my shoulder, head and hip crawling on the edge of the door sill? ;-)

Good idea.

Here's one that's nearly a must for working in the engine comnpartment of full size pickups. Topside Creeper
We don't need that on our AD trucks, because of the nice wide fenders, and no lumps that hit strategic body parts.

Don't worry about hijacking it. maybe someone will eventually find an easy adjustment or tell us a cure to get the full sweep.