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used vacuum wipers,to buy or not to buy


Buick35

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My wipers on my 35 Buick are not working. I tried rebuilding them but no luck. A guy on e bay has a pair for $116 plus shipping.I wonder if I should take a chance on them working or not. I know they are being sold as cores or for parts but he said the controls move. What to do? Maybe just use rain ex.

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Why are your not working? It sounds silly, but have you verified you have vacuum to the motors? 

Buying someone elses "cores" won't get you anywhere. Look up the wiper rebuilders in Hemmings and discuss the symptoms, maybe send them out for rebuild.

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These things are made of zinc. The flapper run must be absolutely straight or it will work on the bench, and then stop at the wide spot after you bolt it in the car. Some are not rebuildable due to wear or warpage. Send yours in. If they reject it, buy a core on Ebay and send that in.

 

Any used motor is a core. It is not worth the time and effort to bolt it in the car without rebuilding it first. Like you, I tried to fix my most recent one. Like so many times in the past the motor had problems I could not reasonably fix for less than the cost of a rebuild, if at all. Clean Sweep rebuilt it. Seems to work good, Works fine spraying water on the windshield, though to be fair I have not been caught in the rain yet, so I don't really know for sure how good it is. Since my car has no booster pump on the engine, I am expecting the old "let the throttle up to get a wipe" routine, but time will tell.

 

Note: It is not only important that the wiper work, but that it does not leak vacuum when it is shut off.

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21 minutes ago, Bloo said:

Since my car has no booster pump on the engine, I am expecting the old "let the throttle up to get a wipe" routine, but time will tell.

I carry Rain-X and blue paper towels as applicators in each car.  Rain-X works better than unboosted wipers!

 

22 minutes ago, Bloo said:

Note: It is not only important that the wiper work, but that it does not leak vacuum when it is shut off.

VERY, VERY IMPORTANT!  Because I very rarely encounter rain, I cap off the feed to the wiper motor(s) with electrical tape and slip the hose back in place.  If you do need to use the wipers, remember to remove the tape.

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Vacuum wipers canbe repaired.  My 35 buick has two that were repaired by a fellow in St. Petersburg FL in 1997.

He has since exprired but there are others with that talent and know how.

Mine still work, I  was caught in the rain two weeks ago, they were slow getting started but did the job.

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Guaranteed the eBay motors will have dried out seals and be in need of rebuilding as well.  It's just the nature of the beast.

I sent my vacuum wiper motors to Kent of Clean Sweep Windshield Wiper Motor Service in Oregon (541) 923-4319.  They came back like brand new and worked perfectly.  I believe I paid $95 per motor for this service, which I thought was very fair.

Cheers, Greg

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