VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 Wiper Woes

I am suspecting the wiper motor ('49 Chevy 4400), but first I will replace the vacuum hose. But the existing vacuum hose looks OK. But sometimes a part looks OK and it's not. And the hose is the least expensive component so it makes sense to do that first.

The symptoms are: When I turn on the wipers, they move slowly to an angle of about 30 degrees and then stop. When I turn the wipers off, they come back to the horizontal position.

Sounds like the wiper motor doesn't it? And right now everything is out of the dash (speedometer, radio, glove box). I've never taken out a wiper motor but it makes sense that it will be easier because all that other stuff is out of the way right now.

Any comments welcome!

Lee Prairie

Yep, every thing is much easier to get at with the speaker grill and gauges out. Not much to getting the wiper motor out, just a couple of screws and a couple of clips. The rubber grommets will no doubt be shot. And while you’re at it, if it were me, I would pull the transmissions out and see what condition they are in. The joints at the links tend to loosen up or wear.
As far as the wipers stopping mid-way, first of all, a vacuum system, any vacuum system, has to be ABSOLUELY tight to operate properly, did I say ABSOLUELY tight? If your system is vacuum tight and it is still sticking then your chances are prurty durn good, as we have said before, that you’re in need of a rebuild. Send it off to the Wiperman.com and have done with it.
You can pull it apart, clean it, re-grease it re-assemble it and put it all back in and I’ll bet a dollar to a doughnut that it’s still gonna stick. You in all likelihood need a new paddle, and ya just can’t buy them or make them because I believe it was a graphite impregnated fabric the is riveted together.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Thanks, Denny. I put a new hose on it just now and it still sticks half-way. I'll check with Wiperman.com.

Many thanks.

Lee Prairie

I sent the wiper motor for my 54 to the Filling Station for repair. It works like an electric wipre. I never had it so good.

Last year coming home from the six cylinder tour I would turn the wiper o tnen off all day. I then had it repaired.

Jim Carter quoted me a wiper motor rebuild price of $55 to compare with wiperman.com's price of $90.

Lee Prairie

Back roads , what did the folks at The Fillin Station charge for fixing the 54 wiper? If you don't want to post the price please send me a Private Message. I have the same situation on our 53 Belair 2 door sedan of having to turn the wiper on, turn it to park, then back on and back and forth for a while, I have oiled it with ATF and it don't work any better, Next I plan to install a dual action fuel pump, unless I can get the Fillinstation to fix it, right.

Mr. Mack, I can't put my hands on the paper work. If you call the Filling Station they will quote you the price up front. My wiper has the pump for the washer. They repaired everything and it works great. I don't know why I waited five years except I wasn't in the rain. Driving all day in the rain from West Virginia to Ohio pushed me over the edge.

Good luck. I'm sure you will like it.

Mr Mack

Be careful with the dual action pump. I had considered putting on on my car, then found out there were no repair kits available in case it quite working. I think the rebuild would be a better idea in that case.

Before going through a major process do the quick and easy wiper motor fix. It will work 80 percent of the time.
Remove wiper hose from manifold. Imerse end of hose in ATF. Work wipers back and forth by hand. That will draw the ATF into the motor. Let soak for a few hours. Attach hose and try wipers.
Did mine 8 years ago and still working reat.
This also appears in a 1929 Service News (but not with ATF)

Pardon me for not knowing. Is ATF "Automatic Transmission Fluid"? I came to Chevy trucks from a strong Allis-Chalmers background.

... and are you recommending this treatment for the vacuum type wiper motors?

... and presumably you drain the ATF out again after a while?

Lee Prairie

"ATF" is "automatic transmission fluid", and this treatment is used on vacuum wiper motors.

And no need to drain it out. The engine vacuum will suck it into the intake manifold.

If you need a dual action AC fuel pump for a 53 54 rebuilt contact Terrill Machine Company DeLeon, Texas 76444 i got two done a couple of years ago for $75 each.

The Filling Station quoated a charge of $115 to rebuild my 53 Wiper motor.

Do you really have to take the wiper motor out to do the ATF treatment? Why can't you just push some ATF into the vacuum hose port with a syringe (that has no needle)? Isn't that the only way the ATF would get inside the motor anyway?

Lee Prairie

No need to remove the motor. Just put hose from vacuum port to supply of ATF and rotate motor shaft.

This was posted yesterday afternoon by Chev Nut:

ooops... didn't read that one closely enough.

Lee

SUCCESS!!!!

I did the syringe thing.... put a 5 or 6 inch nipple hose on the vacuum port, injected 30 cc of mercon, waited some time, put the vacuum hose back on and I've got peppy wipers now!!!!

I didn't rotate the motor shaft or anything. Just did the syringe injection.

Pardon my exuberance, but y'all have saved me a ton of money already!

Many thanks.

Lee Prairie

Well that's just great Lee. Hope it keeps on, keepin on.
I worked with high vacuum systems for 27 years at a national accelerator laboratory before I retired and a good seal is all important to the operation of any vacuum equipment. So I would sure like to hear a logical explanation to why washing the grease from the paddle in the wiper motor would help it to seal better. The wiperman says he assembles the motor and uses grease on the paddle. That makes complete sense because the grase will give you a better seal than a thin oil. So, I'll be danged if I can understand how washing off any remaining grease with light weight ATF is gonna make for a better vacuum seal than grease.
But I guess you can't argue with success. My gut feeling is that if you had dissasembled the motor, cleaned and re-greased the paddle you would have had the same results but with a longer lasting and stronger vacuum seal. But we're all entitled to our own opinions, right?

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

How about if the ATF softens the hard grease inside of the wiper motor so that the paddle will seal instead of "washing" the grease away?

I thought everyone did that with the ATF, I have also used MMO. I rebuilt one for my 28, I bought one for a model A F0RD on greedbay and it was a mess. The little shuttle parts were all there but just stuffed into the little small compartment. I took it all the way down and dug the old grease out by soaking it with WD-40 and scrapeing it out with a popsickle stick, didn't want to scratch the pot metal. The little shuttle switch was the hatdest, since I had never seen one before.I used some KY jelly on the paddle and body. I heard it works well on reciporating parts, It worked, now there is a tube of KY in the toolbox. It works for door latches too. I like Lubriplate better when I have it around.

Open up an old wiper motor and you will find caked grease that is so stiff the paddle can't make the grade. The ATF softens the grease and reduces the drag. Simple logic. Nothing to do with sealing.

This is interesting.... why does the ATF work like it obviously does.

(I'm a chemist and was Professor of Chemistry at South Dakota State University from 1992 to 2006...) Grease is a mixture of hydrocarbons and other organic compounds. Grease is wonderful stuff and even has antibiotic activity (if you get a greasy hand injury, for example, it rarely gets infected).

If we can agree that essentially the original grease that was in the motor at manufacture is still there, with the exception of the lighter, more volitile components which have evaporated over time and caused the grease to get too stiff or hard, then replacing those lost volitile grease components essentially 'restores' the wiper motor. The grease gets soft again and the motor turns freely. For practical purposes, the motor may be 'as good as new'.

One poster said that his ATF wiper motor treatment has lasted 8 years. If / when the motor dries out again, it would be interesting to see if a second treatment (15-20 years after the first) would work again. If it works serially like that, then one could keep the same wiper motor running well for a lifetime or more.

In the tractor hobby, we often make our own transmission and rear end oil by mixing oil and grease to get oil weights that are no longer available. One could mix ATF with a quality bearing grease to inject into the wiper motor, but I suspect that might be overkill. It is probably sufficient to just put in the ATF and let it soften the existing grease in the motor and let the excess be sucked into the engine intake. It probably isn't wise to put any more grease in, rather just to soften what is there.

Anyway, I had never heard of the ATF treatment and it saved me from the chore and expense of taking my wiper motor out and sending it off to be rebuilt. THANK YOU!!!

Lee Prairie

As a chemist you probably also recognize that grease is made from oil modified with surfactants. Most grease uses sodium based or water soluble surfactants. There are calcium based surfactants mostly intended for marine applications that are water resistant. Those are the ones to use for wiper motors. I use a lower unit outboard motor grease. It is classified as a light grease so flows well with little resistance.

As you know hydrocarbons will volatilize and oxidize. Bacteria will also feast on hydrocarbons. Adding ATF can restore the "lights" but will not reverse oxidation. So the ATF treatment will get a few more years of use but is not as good as taking apart, cleaning and re-lubricating.

The ATF doesn't actually make the paddle seal, but the ATF does soften the hard grease and the paddle leather making it possible for the paddle to seal easier against the inside of the wiper motor housing and work correctly.

Actually, the paddle "sealing" (for lack of a better word) is why the wiper motor works. Many of the early six cylinder vacuum type of wiper motors cannot be rebuilt due to an outward warping to the sides of the pot metal housing, which causes the paddle not to internally "seal", therefore the wiper motor will not work and it must be replaced.