The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Re: Wiper motor not fitting

I have a 54 3100. I ordered a wiper motor from Newport. The box says for 54 and 55.1. I installed the motor and the wiper cam is way off. The wiper arms don't come close to attaching to the new motor. Any idea. I can relocate the mounting bracket to position the new wiper motor?

Dave, Did the wiper arm connectors reach the original vacuum motor? You might double check that the arms are in the correct "parked" position. Remove the wiper blade arms from the rotating shaft on the cowl and rotate them to move the under dash actuator arm ends into the closest to the wiper motor point to see if that corrects the problem.

I removed the wipers and attempted to relocate the arms. I moved through their entire cycle. I am going to put the old motor back in place to see what us different.

I had a similar issue with my New Port electric wiper motor in my '50.
The control arm on the motor was clocked wrong from the factory.
It is splined and can be repositioned by backing off an Allen screw. Takes a bit of trial and error to get it right.
I found that moving the passenger and driver side wiper transmission to their furthest from park position was the best way to confirm that the control arm of the motor was clocked correctly at the furthest from park position.
The best way to get the control arm to the furthest from the park position was to turn the motor switch on (without the wiper transmission arms attached) until it just reaches that position and quickly remove the negative battery wire from the battery. (Shutting off the switch will automatically return the motor to the Park position which does not help at all.)

I tried re-clocking the control arm. I was able to get it closer and attach one arm but the new position would only take the wiper through about a half stroke across the windshield. It would not move through the full cycle. I looked at this thing every which way I can and no matter what I do it appears the motor control arm is out of position. It needs to be relocated about 3-4 inches toward the driver side. The mounting bracket was tack welded to the under side of the dash. I had already replaced the vacuum motor with one of the cheaper electric motors that failed almost Immedialty. That is when I decided to go with the Newport. With the multiple installs and removals the stress on the bracket caused the tack weld to break loose. I had attached it back in place with machined screws, which might have been a good thing. It will be simple (relatively), to relocate the mounting bracket. I had to walk away. Once I have my second wind, I will attempt that to see if it solves the problem. I still can't figure out while this was not a simple drop in fix based on the Newport reputation unless possibly this is not the original cab on my 54? I wonder if it is a 47-53 cab and what differences there might be in the wiper set up configuration. The door tag appears to be original and indicates it is a 54.

Pretty easy to tell the difference between a '54 cab and a '47-'53. The '54 would have a single piece windshield, while the earlier trucks would have a split windshield. There's probably a little difference in the cowl with the curved windshield of the '54 cab.

I would give Newport a call and ask them about it. Possibly you have '47-'53 wiper transmission arms, but if they worked with the previous motors, that's unlikely.

[on edit] There's definitely a difference between 47-53 and 54 wiper motors. See the attached snip from the 29-54 Parts manual.

Email New port. The guy I contacted was very helpful and responded to my emails very promptly. I, like you was very frustrated before I contacted them, but they soon had me talked off ledge, and all fixed up.

Thanks Carl. I will try contacting Newport before doing something drastic like relocating the mounting bracket. Kevin, I wasn't thinking. I knew that about the one piece windshield. It never crossed my mind. I have a 54 cab. One piece windshield.