The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Electric Windshield Wipers

Hi all;
I'm thinking I'll change the wipers on the '54 GMC over to electric,but I'm not sure who makes a high quality conversion. I'd like the control to be in the stock location,and above all,it needs to be reliable. I've run across cases on other projects in the past where a lower priced unit worked far better than the big bucks ones,so the old "Buy the most expensive one for the best quality." thing doesn't cut it for me. So,who's had really good results with their conversion? Did it self park okay? Was there provisions for the delay? How hard/easy to install? Who discovered what they bought was junk?
A buddy mentioned an idea I hadn't thought of-since I plan to install on board air on all my trucks,would it be possible to make the vacuum wiper motor run on air pressure,regulated down to 3-4 #'s?
If it was only going to be driven a couple of times a year it might not be a big deal,but this might end up being my daily driver,and I don't want wipers that have a smoke-fest if there's snow on the wiper arms,or that make so much noise I can't hear the engine...
Speed

If you do a search on wiper motors you'll probably find hours fo reading. For me the choice was NewPort Engineering. First class, well built (here in the USA) Installed the two speed electric and did not have to adjust them. "Park" is dead on.
Now the one I got was for my 52Chevy Panel. I would think they surely carry one for your truck if they are not the same.

Others have expounded on this and tried others but I'll let their testimonies speak for themselves. Stay tuned for more.

http://www.newportwipers.com/

In the end I actually bought my Newport wiper motor through JimCarter. If your a stovebolt contributor and get the discount it JC was a bit less expensive. Newport was 209 and JC was 182 with the discount.... this was the first of Sept. this year.

I got the Newport's as well through Bowtie Bits. No real world service yet but install worked as described, a quick test shows everything in working order. I added an aftermarket switch with delay and washer pump feature, looks just like the one it came with, plan to put a generic period correct knob on it for further "originality".

If you return their drill jigs you get a t-shirt - better than a poke in the eye.

I'd also suggest mounting using rubber washers to minimize operating noise.