VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Fuel Pump with Vacuum Pump

I installed a new fuel pump/vacuum pump combo on my 41 from Chevs of the 40s. They advertise that is stops slow wipers. They are right...at idle speeds and normal driving, the wipers just about fly off the car. However, when I go uphill or push the gas pedal down, I get the common problem of the wipers stopping. Anyone else have experience with these? Could I possibly have it hooked up backwards or am I still faced with the century old problem of no wipers uphill?

Nope, you don't have your dual action fuel pump hooked up backwards. What you are experiencing is a common problem. I have owned my 1951 Chevrolet since 1960 and in that time I have installed about three new dual action fuel pumps on my car and all three were the same.....almost no wipers going up hill. With normal driving, the wipers do work better with a dual action fuel pump than with a single action pump, but going up hill is another story.

I had a dual pump on my 52 but took it off because it takes much more pressure to push the arm. I was concerned about the wear on the cam.

I just checked on converting it to electric and found a great option....except for a big problem. My original radio is in the way. I don't want to remove my radio just to install an electric replacement wiper motor.

I have been running a dual action fuel pump on my '51 Chevy since 1960 and it hasn't hurt the cam yet.

If you are not concerned with "show points" a simple solution to lazy wipers is a vacuum reserve tank. They were commonly used when vacuum operated headlight doors were popular.

Find one of those if you can and hide is somewhere. Also, you can convert a large juice can (solder a suitable tube connection in each end) to do the same job. Paint it black and mount it wherever is convenient.

Otherwise, just live with the age-old problem.

What years did the reserve tank come on? I'll mount it under the car out of sight.

From poor memory, late '60s into '70s. Some actually were just juice cans with brackets and tube fittings. They work!

Rainex works fairly well, too - without running the wipers.

I installed a TRICO vacuum reserve tank on my 1953 when it was new. It gave steady wiper action at full throttle for about 5 seconds. Then it ran out of vacuuum and it took another 5 seconds for the vacuum to "return". I installed a dual fuel pump on my 1955 V-8 when it was new. It gave constant and positive action.
The dual pump was standard equipment on 1958 6 Cyl. cars and they worked well.