One of my projects this year was to add electric wipers. There are several threads on the subject of wiper motors, what fits and what replacements exist. Newport wipers (newportwipers.com) is mentioned in a few, and this is the solution I decided to go with. Here is a little review of the project on a 1952 Studebaker. The car is already 12 volts.
The kit is nice, they even included a switch and wires. The directions are good enough, nothing too difficult here. I like the unit a lot, but problem 1 came up right away. Their welded up drive arms are bigger than the Studebaker originals. So they do NOT fit into the hole in your firewall. You cannot even test fit the motor in place until you get out your dremel and cut off wheels, and significantly enlarge the firewall opening. No way around this.
Once installed though fit is fine and nothing really interferes. The supplied wires are not any too long, so plan on taking a direct route to your switch. In my case at least, this dictated another hole in the firewall to drill and a grommet to find.
Problem 2 was discovered under the dash. The original wiper arms do not fit over the pins on their drive arm. This really ticked me off, as you know hard it is to get your hands up under the dash on these cars. Starting with the passenger side, I had to remove the outer bezel, then wiggle the whole arm assembly out of the dash. Newport supplies with the kit new plastic bushings and clips for attachment. The Studebaker arm uses a rubber/bronze bushing, but even if you drilled it out a little bigger it will not work. They are too thick for the shorter studs on the motor drive arm. So I had to hammer out the original bushing and use the new plastic one.
I was not eager to do it again on the driver side. This is where problem 2 became not such a problem. As I grabbed the drivers side arm, the orignal bushing fell right out. This one had disintegrated over time, so all of a sudden I was happy to have the new plastic bushings on hand. Still, plan on removing the arms from under the dash to get those original bushings out.
Their switch has 4 posts. Power, low, high, and park. 3 come from the wiper motor, so all you need to do is supply the power. I already had a nice switch to use, that matches the other dash controls. Plus the newport switch has a cheesy plastic knob. But you really need to use their switch so the wipers will park properly. A dilema, but solved it by taking my switch apart, and putting theirs behind it. One drives the other. This was a bit of a pain, but newport does make a nice extension for their switch that you can buy. My approach was more CASO but worked fine.
You are done. The wipers worked perfectly on the first try and park just fine. Money well spent.
The kit is nice, they even included a switch and wires. The directions are good enough, nothing too difficult here. I like the unit a lot, but problem 1 came up right away. Their welded up drive arms are bigger than the Studebaker originals. So they do NOT fit into the hole in your firewall. You cannot even test fit the motor in place until you get out your dremel and cut off wheels, and significantly enlarge the firewall opening. No way around this.
Once installed though fit is fine and nothing really interferes. The supplied wires are not any too long, so plan on taking a direct route to your switch. In my case at least, this dictated another hole in the firewall to drill and a grommet to find.
Problem 2 was discovered under the dash. The original wiper arms do not fit over the pins on their drive arm. This really ticked me off, as you know hard it is to get your hands up under the dash on these cars. Starting with the passenger side, I had to remove the outer bezel, then wiggle the whole arm assembly out of the dash. Newport supplies with the kit new plastic bushings and clips for attachment. The Studebaker arm uses a rubber/bronze bushing, but even if you drilled it out a little bigger it will not work. They are too thick for the shorter studs on the motor drive arm. So I had to hammer out the original bushing and use the new plastic one.
I was not eager to do it again on the driver side. This is where problem 2 became not such a problem. As I grabbed the drivers side arm, the orignal bushing fell right out. This one had disintegrated over time, so all of a sudden I was happy to have the new plastic bushings on hand. Still, plan on removing the arms from under the dash to get those original bushings out.
Their switch has 4 posts. Power, low, high, and park. 3 come from the wiper motor, so all you need to do is supply the power. I already had a nice switch to use, that matches the other dash controls. Plus the newport switch has a cheesy plastic knob. But you really need to use their switch so the wipers will park properly. A dilema, but solved it by taking my switch apart, and putting theirs behind it. One drives the other. This was a bit of a pain, but newport does make a nice extension for their switch that you can buy. My approach was more CASO but worked fine.
You are done. The wipers worked perfectly on the first try and park just fine. Money well spent.