Wiper Motor problem

B

benbuilder

Senior Member
I have a 31 truck, when i bought it, the wiper did not move.
I bought a rebuild kit, disassembled and cleaned it all. I installed new gaskets. per the instructions and as i see online.
When i put it on the truck, it will work for a few 1/2 sweeps one way, but only if i push and pull the switch. In other words, it does not sweep back and forth, i need to make the movement with the switch. But then it stops.
When i open up the cover after it stops working i see the fiber part has sprung off.
When i bench test with my Mighty Vac tool, i cannot get any vacuum. I cannot however see where my leak is.
Any thoughts?
I know everyone says to send it out, but i want to do it myself.
This is the aftermarket one that can be rebuilt.
 
I have determined that the vacuum leak is in the switch. My rebuild kit did not include a gasket for the switch.
When i remove the switch and cover the holes below, i hold vacuum. i cannot however find a gasket to buy for this.
Anyone have a work around? rubber is too thick.
 
Well, I repaired it.
There’s not a lot of information on troubleshooting and rebuilding these wiper motors online. I saw two videos and neither one was conclusive. Plus it's hard to see the pieces closely. And some of the videos omitted parts. I took bits and pieces of what I read on the Ford barn.
I bought a rebuild kit. Mine is rebuildable because it's an aftermarket motor.
I rebuilt the paddle with the directions included in the kit, however the kit did not say where in the paddle two gaskets provided were supposed to be installed, so I did not use them.
One other thing I noticed is when I took apart my 31 wiper motor, there was a round rubber washer on one end of the paddle that is meant to seal inside the motor at the top. In the rebuild kit they give you a fiber or some other gasket material, but when I dry fit it on the paddle and inside the pump, I noticed that the dry washer would not seal, what it was intended to seal against. So I did not use it, and I made my own rubber washer and installed it.
One of the guys on the Ford barn says that he works on his wiper motors on his bench and he uses a vacuum pump. I tried every way to get a vacuum pump to work, but I finally came to the conclusion that my switch was bad or the gasket would not hold Vacuum. I am not sure that's the case now.
I was not convinced that the mechanical parts were correct either, because again, this wiper hasn’t worked in I don’t know how many years. And the more I played with it I realized something was off. I was not even confident I had the correct pieces to work with. I had a 1932 motor on a shelf, and they’re very similar, so I took that apart and noticed, that I was right. The valve rocker in my motor was slightly was broken. After I drilled out the hole to accept the valve rocker, I took the part from the 32 motor and put it all back together and again bench tested it, but it would not hold vacuum.
I decided to try it anyway.
I temporarily installed it and it appeared to work fine.
I guess I may have successfully rebuilt the wiper motor. I still need to hook up the Blade and mount it permanently, but I’m pretty convinced that it’s working.
Thanks for all the help. Not that I think many guys are going to be doing this. Nobody is stupid enough to put 8 hours into something that could be sent out to be rebuilt. For me it was the challenge.
This is a good page to look at for how the pieces go together-TRICO
TRICO
 
Send me your email address as private message and I'll send you several pages of wiper motor repair pages I have gleaned from several sources of the years. Maybe there's some more information in there that will help diagnose other wiper problems you may encounter.
For the record, I have NEVER had any luck rebuilding Model A vacuum wipers, even using the so-called kit with paddle innards that are all but impossible to install correctly. I believe there is some magic needed to rebuild a vacuum wiper. And Mr. Ficken is that magician.
Marshall
 
benbuilder said:
I have determined that the vacuum leak is in the switch. My rebuild kit did not include a gasket for the switch.
When i remove the switch and cover the holes below, i hold vacuum. i cannot however find a gasket to buy for this.
Anyone have a work around? rubber is too thick.
Click to expand...

So coincidentally, I just rebuilt a wiper and got the same result. Working the switch, it will go one way, work the switch again, it will go the other…stubbornly. I thought the switch looked pretty good and used some grease to help it seal. Was the switch the reason yours would not operate both directions? Thanks
 
After i rebuilt it and had swing at least one way one way, i found two things that i corrected that led to it working.
The first was, i thought my rubber gasket i made for the paddle may have been too big and hanging up in the inside walls, so i trimmed it.
the second was while it was hooked up and on vacuum, i took the cover off to see what was going on. I noticed the pivot arm or valve rocker- depending on what you read- was not tripping the mechanism to make it swing back. For some reason, i thought that one side of this pivot arm/valve rocker must be worn too much to make the switch. I had another motor, so i replaced it and all works fine now. I also determined that the spring, if weak, will not allow this arm to swing. good luck hope it helps. report back
 
At its best, the original vacuum wiper motor is only a decoration because it slows to a stop when you accelerate the engine. Leave it on your "A" as is and use RainX.
 
Marshall V. Daut said:
Send me your email address as private message and I'll send you several pages of wiper motor repair pages I have gleaned from several sources of the years. Maybe there's some more information in there that will help diagnose other wiper problems you may encounter.
For the record, I have NEVER had any luck rebuilding Model A vacuum wipers, even using the so-called kit with paddle innards that are all but impossible to install correctly. I believe there is some magic needed to rebuild a vacuum wiper. And Mr. Ficken is that magician.
Marshall
Click to expand...

The dad, Mr. Ficken was the guy. The kid is useless.
 
I did a smoke diagnostic test today looking for leaks. A little bit comes out at the center clock valve, but I don’t think that is the issue. When the on/off switch is pulled out, there was definitely a leak at the switch. Is pulled out the “on” position? Also, what did you use to seal the upper cover to the lower body? Following the instructions I used Vaseline, but it also says non-hardening sealer. I think I could have a better seal around the upper and lower than what I do have and maybe non-hardening sealer would be better.
 
When the on/off switch is pulled out, there was definitely a leak at the switch. I THOUGHT SO TOO, BUT MINE DID WORK. THERE WAS NO GASKET POROVIDED FOR THIS.

Is pulled out the “on” position? I THINK PULLED OUT IS THE OFF

Also, what did you use to seal the upper cover to the lower body? THEY GIVE TWO GASKETS IN THE KIT WHICH I DID USE AND FILED THE TWO SURFACES A BIT TO GET THEM SMOOTH

Following the instructions I used Vaseline, but it also says non-hardening sealer. I think I could have a better seal around the upper and lower than what I do have and maybe non-hardening sealer would be better. I USED VASELINE

HAVE YOU TRIED IT ON THE CAR?
 
I hooked it up to my Model A’s vacuum line to test it. It wasn’t bolted on, just hooked to the vacuum. I may have to pull it apart and file the edges, then figure out something better with the switch. Thanks Ben!
 
I was working on my mine over the weekend and through process of elimination, I discovered there was blockage in the metal line from the Manifold to the Firewall connection. Although I am not certain how that happened, after clearing it out out coupled with a few squirts of 3 & 1 oil, the wiper works great.
 
Similar experience: prior to rebuild the wiper would make one swipe and stop. Then when it was turned off and on again, it would make the reverse swipe and stop. Bought a rebuild kit and rebuilt it. Unfortunately, it works just like it did before the rebuild. However, I noticed that while testing it on the car without the wiper arm attached, it worked fine. So apparently it isn't getting enough vacuum to cause it to reverse direction on it's own under the pressure of the wiper arm? I also wet the windshield to see if that helped - no joy there. So maybe it is a vacuum leak?

Does anyone know how much vacuum it is supposed to take to drive the wiper?

But I will say that when it wipes (one way), it actually does a pretty good job!
 
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