Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Anybody had any luck converting vacuum wipers to electric. The car in question is a 56 Executive.

55-6 Chevy wiper motor is drop in for the V8's (with possible exception of needing some spacers) but hard to find and expensive. Newport Engineeringhttp://www.newportwipers.com/ has a modern kit but you will have to remove the original mechanical bowden cable valve control and modify a piece for the new electric switch. Unless you find the washer pieces for the Chevy motor or make an adapter for the Newport, both options will lose the co-ordinator for the windshield washer if that is a concern. Those conversions are shown in the last two pages of this thread and there is also a photo of a junkyard motor approachhttps://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=11642&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=0

Another option is to have your vacuum motor rebuilt by Fickenhttp://www.wiperman.com/ to it's original specs and performance.

No attempt on later cars. Successful on 40 junior electric to 39 vacuum.

Here's what I did on my 55 Pat.

http://1956packardpanther.com/Panther/wipers.html

Craig

Spent about 6 hours driving in the rain a couple of weeks ago in my 56. The Ficken rebuilt vacuum unit worked perfectly and I enjoyed playing with the variable sweep and speed as conditions changed. All this for only $108. I like it.

Ross, I got trapped in a heavy rainstorm on my way to a Packard meet a few years ago. My original (not rebuilt) wiper worked fantastic. Up until that time it had never had a serious test. Properly rebuilt they will outlast us all.

The neglected item on those motors is they need oil periodically. The manual says to squirt oil into the motor while moving the blades back and forth to suck the oil in.

I would try that before going further.

I also knew somebody who swore by Rainex. They would put it on before going on a long trip.

Tim didn't mention it, but the technique is to remove the vacuum line and squirt some oil in the hole on the motor. I have always used Neatsfoot oil in mine.

Update: The owner decided he wanted to switch to electric wipers so I installed a kit from New Port Engineering. Very nice unit, not cheap, but works great. Even kept the original knob.