The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Trico Vacuum Wiper Motor - 1957 3100

I am trying to sort out wiper motor issues. The switch and motor are currently on my bench. I test it using vacuum from the truck.
When I rotate the switch to 'on', pivot arm will rotate until the arm is perpendicular to the motor. Then it stops. When I turn off the switch, the pivot arm will rotate, counter clockwise to a near horizontal position. Turn the switch on, it goes back to perpendicular.
Is this something that a disassembly and cleaning might resolve or should I send it out for a rebuild? I have 'injected' PB Blaster into the vacuum hose port with no change. And warmed the motor as well.
Suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

My experience with disassembling vacuum motor wipers is that repairing them is beyond my skill level and rebuild kits are not available. I'd recommend you send it off to Rob Fiken at Fiken Wiper Service That's what I did, and it was money well spent.

Ficken, Ficken , Ficken.

Send it to that guy, it will come back good as new.
Quick turnaround, reasonable too.
When my vacuum motor arrived back from Ficken I thought he had replaced it with a new unit.

Trico wiper motor rebuilder and parts sales

The Wiperman
132 Calvert Ave
West Babylon, NY 11704
(631)587-3332 M-F 9-5 EST
http://www.wiperman.com/

That's 3 votes for Rob Fiken. (Otto's link winds up at the same place as the one I posted)

Make that four votes for Rob Ficken. I sent mine there a few years back and he did an awesome job!

Make that 5 votes. He did mine also.

New total = 6. Got mine from Fickens too.....

I was able to purchase a NOS from Fickens, which he rebuilt as well. Would use again.

Ficken rebuilt one for me many years ago. It worked "perfectly". As you know, vacuum wipers are absolutely useless so even working perfectly was nothing to be relied upon when driving in actual rain.

I started using RainX on every vehicle I own, including those with electric wipers. It is far superior.

I have one from Ficken also. Definitely would recommend his rebuilds.

I just disassembled, cleaned, and re-lubricated my vacuum wiper motor (CSM). Chances are you are dealing with old grease at the bottom of the sweep jamming the paddle. they are surprisingly simple in construction so a couple of cell-phone pictures is enough to get it apart and put back together without trouble.

Some notes in point form:
-The funny rectangle-headed screws are easily gripped with a pair of pliers. When threading these back in, remember you are screwing into old pot-metal, so be very gentle.

-The disassembly order should be - remove the valve assembly on the back, undo the top screws, lift the top off, slide the paddle up

-I soaked the main housings over the work week in varsol to soften the baked-on dirt and grease. I omitted the plastic parts and the paddle from this, as I did not want those dissolving, and instead did my usual parts washing (Brushing varsol on it until the grease was off the part) on those.

-The paddle has two leather strips riveted together between two iron plates. DO NOT MESS WITH THE CONTOURS OF THE LEATHER - This forms your vacuum seal! If this needs to be repaired, it is best to abort, reassemble, and send to the professional with photos of what you found.

-The back of the motor has a latching, reciprocating valve. A small lever pushes the latch to one side as it nears the end of its travel, which moves a plastic cap nested on the top to redirect the vacuum.

-Because the atmosphere side of the paddle vents inside the valve latch chamber, there is a felt block here to serve as an air filter. I soaked this in varsol to dissolve the old oil, squeezed it dry, and reinstalled it.

-For lubricant, I used Permatex Synthetic Grease. I ensured the same amount of grease went on both sides of the paddle. Don't forget the upper housing will have a spot for the paddle to travel in.

-I got a couple of reproduction Trico model CSM gaskets off of Ebay, and I used a tiny bit of gasket maker to help seal the housings.

On the slide valve. the part that directs the vacuum is supposed to be rubber, and that part on mine was brittle from the years of dry-baking under a metal dashboard. I recreated the part in Autodesk Fusion and 3D-Printed it in TPU, a thermoplastic that has some rubber like properties. I'll see what happens to it over the years, but so far my vacuum motor has minimal leakage there. I uploaded the 3D model here

Ficken, no question. Did mine like 20 years ago. Still works perfect.

I’ve seen some conversation here about “sucking” some Marvel Mystery Oil into the unit through some port. That sometimes frees things up and moisturizes the seals and makes a motor function again.

Can someone describe which port we are talking about?

Nice article. Thanks!

You would suck the oil into the vacuum inlet. the oil is softening up the old grease so it moves aside and perhaps liquify a little bit. The effectiveness of this treatment depends on how dried up the old grease is. Marvel mystery oil's primary ingredient is a mix of petroleum distillates and Stoddard solvent (also known as varsol), so you would have a similar effect by using a mix of varsol and ATF as well.

I saved this thread to reference when I was ready to do the MMO trick on my wiper motor. The “mafca” link above is now dead.

Can anyone describe the procedure in their own words? Am I just attaching the vacuum inlet into a cup of MMO and then manually moving the wipers back and forth?

I don't think putting the vacuum inlet into MMO would suck it in, as the vacuum inlet would actually "blow" if you manually move the motor. There's an "exhaust" port that allows air into the motor, but I think it's under the switching mechanism cover. If you pull that off and then use a dropper to put MMO into the ports there, it would get into the motor.
You can confirm which port will suck MMO in by putting your finger over them when moving the motor manually.
I'd have to dig one of my spare motors out to check that, but I'm pretty sure I'm correct.

Found this: (Trico) Vacuum Windshield Wiper Motor - Easy Fix - 1948 Chevy

Gonna give it a go.

Great find JW! Flicken redid my wiper motor a few years ago and it still works as new, I may use the technique above to do a bit of PM.

RonR

Digging around on the interwebs, it seems that there are a few variations of how/where to introduce the solvent/lubricant. But it seems to all have the same general idea. Soften old crusty grease and moisturize seals.

Much of the online (of which there is surprisingly little), comes from the early Fjord community.

Watching that video, you can hear the tube blowing air into the can of MMO, so like I suspected, it does blow when manually moving the blades. I'm not disputing that it works, but I don't see how it gets much MMO into the motor. But if it works. then, as the saying goes, it isn't stupid.

Without knowing ANYTHING about this, my assumption is that the motor innards create a sucking action in one part of their motion. The various old Fjord documentation suggests that is the case.

I have read that 1 tablespoon of thick wheel bearing grease is used to help seal the paddle. Oil in the grease evaporates over time and the grease thickens. Over time, leather (or the paddle-to-housing material) ages out and becomes stiff and/or wears. Over time the inside of the housing can wear down. Injecting various chemicals into the motor may help the motor to function again but this may be a temporary solution i.e. the problem comes back. Also be careful of the chemicals you use because they may be sucked back into the engine and cause damage.

We all know what happens when piston rings wear out in our engines. It's time for a rebuild. It's the same for a vacuum motor. If you can stall the motor my gripping the output shaft (not the wiper arm) with your fingers, the motor needs servicing. Flicken has the parts, knowledge and experience.

One more thing, there is a piece called a rocker that is attached to a spring. If the rocker breaks (becomes brittle and snaps), the motor will operate once in one direction and stop. The rocker and other parts are used to switch direction of the motor for wiping action.

When I started checking out the wiper motor on my field find it seemed stuck. I came across a article that said fill it with atf over night then turn the arm back and forth. It worked fine after that.
Seems the diaphragm is leather and gets hard with age and non use. The above referrals look like the way to go if you can.

Doug