The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors 1938 Vacuum Windshield Wiper Motor

On my 38 1/2 ton truck I am trying to remove the windshield wiper motor. It looks like I need to remove the small hub, that the wiper sits on, at the end of the motor shaft but dont see how it comes off. I see what looks like a nut with a slot in the middle but dont know how to hold the shaft to unscrew the nut. Any suggestions on how to remove the wiper motor?

Mike - What length (if any) of the shaft is exposed between the collar nut holding the unit to the cab and below the cup on the end of the shaft?

That's an add on later style wiper arm mount or whole wiper motor assembly. The stock wiper motors have a hole and slot, the nut holding it to the truck will slide right off once loosened. I would bet you need to unscrew the center piece with the slot so the splined piece will come off. This is an old e-bay listing, yours should be like this.

NOS Trico Vacuum Windshield Wiper Motor

The side piece is a adjustable valve for speed control. I may have some pieces if you need a new shaft.

Sorry for the delay, Gdads51- there is a small gap, maybe 1/4" between the collar nut and the cup. I thought about putting plyers on it to try to hold it while attempting to remove the cup but thought it would simply scratch the shaft. Any suggestions?

Joe,
The motor looks similar but the end of the shaft on mine is definetly threaded. I hate to ruin this wiper motor to replace it with an original before attempting to lube it to see if it will still operate. Thanks for the link to the original motor.

Mike - I would use a narrow-long jawed pair of vise grip pliers (like pictured below) that would probably fit the exposed shaft. I would try a thin piece of older leather or rubber strip wrapped tightly around the shaft and lock on the the vise grip pliers over what ever you wrap it with to hold the shaft while you try and turn that center end nut. Be sure to soak that nut down with some penetrating fluid before trying to loosen it up. I think this would hold the shaft and not mar it significantly while trying to take it apart.

On an after thought, did you look around the sides of that cup held on the shaft. Be sure their isn't a hole in the side that might lead to a set screw that might secure that end piece to the shaft.

Well I broke it. I had already been soaking the nut for the past 3 days, I still cannot get the hub end with the screwdriver slot to come off the shaft. I took my vise grip pliers as you suggested and found a small piece of leather wrapped the leather around the shaft and slightly started to screw back and fourth. Nothing, happened, what is ashamed is I could hear the inside of the wiper motor still making compression after all these years. Took the vise grip off and I could see the part I put the vise grip on was brass. Put it on again and the first turn of the screwdriver, the shaft broke off. Major dissapointment. Also when I removed the motor from the truck cab the back states "Trico". I am sure no one has parts or rebuilds these, so now I am looking for a replacement motor or a plug for the hole.

All is not lost.

You could send it to Fiken Wiper Service. He can likely rebuild it to like new. Give him a call with the numbers off the motor and he can advise you if it can be rebuilt.

Does anyone know if the 12V 1939 - 46 electric wiper motor sold by Jim Carter will work on my 1938 Truck? I know that was a body change but I think the 39 also has a single wiper above the windshield, not sure why it would not work? Anyone know for sure?

Klhansen,
Thank you for the suggestion, I will reach out. The webpage indicates to reach out to them for rebuilds earlier than 1947 Chevy Trucks.

He does all kinds of wiper motors for every make and model vehicle.

I will dig through my boox of wiper parts and see what I have. I made up a passenger side motor that also parks in the center of the glass.

Mike - I'm sorry my suggestion didn't pan out and may have been the cause of the shaft breaking.

As Kevin mentioned "All is not lost." and you can get help from Ficken, but I think Joe H may be able to help you with parts, so please do reach out to him.

Once again my apologies for the suggestion not turning out in a positive way.

Gdads51, no worries. I was thinking of doing that myself. All suggestions are welcome. Im an adult I make my own decisions, and this is not the first part I have damaged on a project car. I want to thank you again for responding. If I cannot find a replacement or have mine rebuilt I will look into the electric ones sold by Jim Carter.
Thanks again

I dug through all my parts, I don't have a part worth using. I have some tops and a bunch of the small parts and some odd shafts. I have one complete right hand side assembly but no left sides. They are easy to rebuild if you can find a core, the flapper is a leather type material that softens up with a good oil soaking, everything else is metal that doesn't really wear out. I cut my own gaskets with a knife and hole punch, but I have lots of time. Gaskets are on e-bay for not much money.

Mine work pretty good, the 250 makes good vacuum, but on the few times I have used them, they don't wipe the glass very good. There is very little spring tension holding them to the glass and the rubber used in the blades is more of a plastic then rubber, so they just spread the drops around instead of wiping them off. I've tried bldes from different venders and didn't see any improvements. Best thing I've done is put ceramic wax on the glass, the drops just blow, off, rain-x does the same thing.

I'm a strong advocate of RainX. I use it on all my vehcils, including those with working wipers.

I even disconnected the vac wipers on The Bismarck because rainX works better.

Otto,
You've been preachin' for a long time regarding using RainX. Gonna get off my backside and go get some. Thanks for the reminder.

Hahaha! I even use it on cars with good working wipers.

It also works well on the bathroom mirror to keep it from fogging up during a shower. The water beads up and rolls off onto the vanity.