vacuum wipers

[Beap52 2,253]

Nothing like the slapping of vacuum wipers on a deary day.  

 

Drove the '47 Chevy to town and began to sprinkle on way home.   Don't get to use the wipers much.  

[ebinmaine 78,783]

Only seen those in-person once. A friend of my Ole Man's had a cabover Freightliner with vacuum wipers. 

 

[squonk 46,528]

My 61 Falcon had them. Touch the gas and they stopped! 

[ri702bill 12,092]

My 57 Chevy 210 had them. As they say, vacuun sucks. They were "adjustable" to a point for swipes per minute.... almost non existant while struggling up a long incline, and they try to beat themselves to death going on the down incline. Much worse with a worn engine that did not generate good vacuum. I do NOT miss them...

[953 nut 66,017]

Adding a vacuum reservoir to the line going to the wiper motor would help.

[ineedanother 2,321]

 One of my first trucks was a '48 Chevy. Wipers were for downhill runs. Uphill, not so much.

[lynnmor 8,823]

I had a Rambler station wagon with vacuum wipers, they were assisted by the fuel pump with a diaphragm vacuum pump incorporated in it.  

[ri702bill 12,092]

9 hours ago, lynnmor said:

I had a Rambler station wagon with vacuum wipers, they were assisted by the fuel pump with a diaphragm vacuum pump incorporated in it.  

Kelvinator to the rescue!

[Racinbob 12,932]

14 hours ago, 953 nut said:

Adding a vacuum reservoir to the line going to the wiper motor would help.

 

When I was in high school my mom drove a 1960 T-Bird. I remember it having a reservoir on the vac wipers. It looked like a sealed coffee can with two vacuum hose fittings and was painted Ford engine blue. I just looked at a bunch of engine compartment pictures and couldn't find one. I wonder if it was aftermarket or homemade. 

It must of helped but I remember countless times when I needed to nail the gas in the rain. Not good. 

[953 nut 66,017]

1 hour ago, Racinbob said:

I remember it having a reservoir on the vac wipers. It looked like a sealed coffee can with two vacuum hose fittings and was painted Ford engine blue.

They are made of plastic now and have a check valve on the input line.

A few years back my wife was complaining about the AC cutting off and switching to heat while she was driving. It never occurred when I was driving, we took it to two dealers since it was under warranty and neither one could find the problem. Johnny, the mechanic at our Goodyear store, went for a test drive with me, then we swapped sides and he drove putting the pedal to the metal and sure enough, the AC changed over to heat.    Guess the wife is a bit more aggressive behind the wheel  than I am. The following day Johnny had the new reservoir and it was off to the races with cool AC for the wife.

[squonk 46,528]

The "coffee can " resi was indeed oem back in the day but they rusted out. Went to the shot put style tank.

 

My Falcon wipers were off the fuel pump.

 

The HVAC system defaults to defrost with loss of vacuum so that explains why it was switching.

 

And for some reason, mice liked to eat the colorful vacuum hoses under the dash of Chrysler 5th Avenues! 

[Handy Don 16,569]

Have modern vehicles switched to electric actuators for redirecting airflow?

[lynnmor 8,823]

5 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

Have modern vehicles switched to electric actuators for redirecting airflow?

 

I bought a new Tahoe in 2001, with the new body style they went with electric.  First snowmobiling trip to Maine with it my wife had to keep a coat over her legs.  Long, long story about the problem ended with factory involvement, another dealer and one month with the entire dash tore apart.  The fix was to throw away the cheap plastic gear and use a metal one.  Whenever there is a loss of battery power, the actuator cycles both ways till it stalls and calibrates to those stops, of course breaking the plastic gear in the process.  To this day the fix is undocumented so they don't have to fix them all.

[adsm08 4,439]

 

 

22 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

Have modern vehicles switched to electric actuators for redirecting airflow?

 

Ford switched around 2004-2006 depending on the model.

 

Not sure when other manufacturers made the switch.

[cafoose 3,729]

My 2014 Tundra makes this noise after I shut it off a minute or so later. Wondering if it's vacuum related? Did it as long as I owned it with no issues related to it. Seems normal. Kind of like a growling stomach 

Edited 2 hours ago by cafoose

[gt14rider 1,169]

Hi all, I haf a 60's VW bug, when i got it, it ran good, had vacuun wipers ,worked had a storm, and thay quit working couple miles from home , next day got a flat ,went to change it ,it was flat,.

The vacuum line was hook up to the spare, used up the air ,no wipers and a flat tire