Electric windsield washers in a 55

junkyardjeff

Senior Member
While getting the 55 ready for the road trip to Daytona next month I installed 2 speed electric wipers and got all the parts to rebuild the original washer system,took the pump apart tonight and a part that I think is not available as a reproduction is shot so I need to come up with another solution so I think it will go electric too. I want to add a switch to the original foot pedal assembly ad wondering what type of switch to look for,if anyone has done this please post some pics so I can get a idea on what to do. I will use a 60s car or truck bag and pump for a vintage look.
 
I have a '55 Ford Courier that I converted to 12 volts. Aside from installing a modern stereo system in it, i decided to go with an electric WS pump. The kit came with a momentary contact pushbutton that mounts to a bracket under the dash to operate the pump. When you push and hold the button down, it energizes the pump. When you release the button, the pump stops. I rebuilt my foot pump with a new rubber bellows just so I could use it to operate the wipers while using the pump, but I capped the rubber hose that used to go to the "See-Clear" washer reservoir. I re-used the rubber hose that went from the top of the old washer reservoir by routing it to the new reservoir. The other end of that hose is still connected to the old diamond-shaped spray nozzle on top of the hood.
 
I bought an after market ignition push button from the Help rack at O'Reilly. Took everything from under the foot pedal, cleaned up the hole in the floor and put the button under the foot pedal, wired it to an electric pump, and when I push the foot pedal it activates the button and sends power to the pump. All this is on a '54 Customline. Would take pictures, but nothing can be seen from the top except the foot pedal and the backside of the push button is very close the the inner fender under the hood hinge and not much can be seen from there.
 
I found that macs has a 58 to 60 t bird bag that looks real close to the 55 bag but is made to work with a pump and will be getting a 61 to 66 pump.
 
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