The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk '38 Half-Ton Wiper Puzzle

I'm hoping someone else has had to puzzle through this: My '38 Chevy 1/2-ton came to me with no wiper hardware at all - no motor, no anything. Just a keyed hole in the cab over the windshield. I found what was supposed to be the correct vacuum wiper motor, NOS, and it seems to fit, although I had to fabricate a standoff to mount it. This wiper motor has a shaft that passes through the hole, and requires a gasket, a chrome bezel and a nut to hold the whole thing together. The fabricated standoff spaces the motor away from the inside of the cab roof. The chrome bezel I purchased, and it fits the motor just fine. Then I purchased a repro wiper arm from The Flling Station - part number AF-345, supposed to be for this vehicle. Although it looks like it should work, it doesn't fit the motor. The wire that goes through the motor shaft is much smaller than the hole in the shaft, and the arm cover doesn't line up with the groove in the motor shaft. Carter and Bowtie Bits also sell a repro arm, and it looks just like the one I have. Carter's tech folks report no problems with this part. So I'm suspicious of the motor. My motor has a 1/4 non-splined shaft protruding 0.525" past a threaded sleeve. There's a hole, about 0.100" diameter, bored crosswise through the shaft, about 0.075" from the end. The shaft has a triangular shaped groove, starting about 0.275 from the end.

Can one of you experienced folks out there tell me if this is the right vacuum motor ? In case this helps, the motor has a speed knob and an on/off knob, both of which protrude through the cover plate into the cab. The Motor is a Trico. No model number or part number is evident, although there are a lot of patent numbers on it. The box it came in has a number: KSB 382-G. No idea if this is the original box.

Any hints ?

Thanks in advance !

Alex Meade
Lexington, KY

I will take a picture of my '37 vacumn motors for you, all though they are not '37 motors. I believe they are newer style truck motors. I used the factory arm and mounting parts. I will get the picture to you asap. Joe

Thanks, Joe. I actually got a bit of info this morning from the gentleman at Ficken Wiper (wiperman.com). According to my description of the motor, it is indeed the correct motor for a '38 (which he says is not the same part number as a '37). The Trico P/N on the my box is also correct for a '38. He suspects that the problem is my wiper arm, and according to him, there are some repro parts out there that are no good. Apparently this wiper arm mounting scheme is the most common one used with older vacuum motors, and as a result, there are now repros of repros.

So, I'll be interested in the pictures. I have a
different repro wiper arm on the way to me, and I'll report on what I find.

Alex

Update - got a repro wiper arm from Ficken Wiper. Fits just fine, looks darn close to the one I got from Filling Station, but there are some subtle differences that are important to whether or not it fits and works.

Moral of the story: not all repro parts are created equal !

Thanks again for the advice

Alex

Ficken's helped me out as well, and I want to give him a plug. I have a '45 and I had purchased some new arms and blades from Carter's. T1hey didn't fit and so I called Ficken. I had an ANCO adapter on the shaft which had a fine spline to adapt a more modern type arm. (Those always fell off at speed) He said take off the splines and-voila- a cross drilled shaft and the ability to put on the wire style wiper arms. They work and stay on now. (I'm glad they never have to move 6" of snow off the windshield) So Ficken's, thanks, and here's the link again.
http://www.wiperman.com/