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59 Chevy truck windshield wiper motor installation

Hi fellow car enthusiasts, it’s been a while since I’ve posted (sorry), so finally I did something on my project truck that was fun (it’s all fun!) and a little easier on my body! The earlier Chevy trucks like mine came with a vacuum ran wiper motor. The vacuum motor to me seemed like a pretty good idea, except that it doesn’t work very well. Engine vacuum would drop and wipers quit working or barely work.

I bought my electric wiper conversion from New Port Engineering or (www.Newportwipers.com). I’m amazed as to how much stress I place on myself in finding, choosing, and buying, in essence, finding the best product at the lowest price possible!! The American way of buying things!

I was skeptical at first as I don’t usually believe it when something says it’s a direct bolt in or “easily installation”. Oh really? So I waited patiently for this part to arrive, only to find out~~~~~

IT IS TRULY A DIRECT BOLT IN! Pretty much a no brainer! You know, if you ever have to get back to the windshield wiper motor and linkage, it’s difficult to get to after the radio and AC/heat is installed!

This is all my parts to re-install the windshield wiper motor, switch and wiper linkage. No, you do not get the wiper linkage with the wiper motor kit.

Below: This is the area where my new New Port wiper motor will go. Note the holes to the left, one of those is where the new wiper motor switch will go. The large pipe looking thing is the passenger side defrost. The little bracket right below it, is where the support bracket of the wiper motor kit will attach. About dead center and a tad to the left is where the wiper motor bracket will bolt to.

below: it’s difficult to get a good photo of up under the dash, but here is a picture of the wiper motor installed, less the support bracket. I believe the vertical rod in the picture is my wiper linkage hanging down. I didn’t think I had it in there. One other thing I hadn’t mentioned, the new wiper motor bolts up a little higher than the vacuum motor that was in it originally. Now my single din radio has no problem with clearance because of the wiper motor! I was worried about that!

Below: A picture wiper motor and the support bracket coming from the wiper motor leading to an original bracket under the dash for the extra support bracket. Fits perfectly!

My original wiper linkage isn’t in the best of shape, but will have to do. I installed a grease fitting as you can see. This would have made an enormous amount of noise. Just a tiny pump of grease made it quiet. I did buy new chrome bezels.

The New Port windshield wiper motor kit also includes a wiper switch. You can purchase an intermittent switch, but I felt I didn’t need that, should have, but I didn’t! It’s only 30 bucks more~ what’s the matter with me! lol  ; )

For picture sakes, I put the wiper knob where the little wiper on the knob was right side up. Positioned at the off position, the little wiper is off to the left. I’ll probably buy another knob, but in the meantime this is fine!

The only thing I forgot to mention is how the wiper linkage attached to the motor. You would remove the original bushings and install New Ports plastic bushings, then install the linkage with supplied e clips.  This unit is a 2 speed wiper motor.  I did test run the motor to make sure it works by supplying 12 volts to it, and it worked fine! ; )

Of course I have not had the opportunity to use the wiper system, besides, my truck will probably never see rain!

I hope this has been helpful and informative! If you should have any questions about any of the installation, I’d be more than happy to tell you what I know!  I have no connections with New Port, other than I bought the unit from them. ; ) dne’

4 Responses so far.

  1. Juan says:

    Thank you very much for the post, it helped me alot.

  2. Les says:

    My son got a 59 apache. Finally got it road worthy. The wiper is electric, but the e-clips are missing. is there a place to find such? We can’t find anything like it.

    • admin says:

      Hi! Congratulations on getting it road worthy! as for the e-clips, I would think that a local auto parts or even an ACE hardware would have these. They usually have boxes of hard to find items. If you can get to where the e-clips go, perhaps you could measure one of them with a caliper. Or, what I have done in the past, is guesstimate (guess), and buy a few of the e-clips hoping you get one that fits! When I was installing my e-clips, I was worried about them going flying! Otherwise, if worse comes to worse, I would think that the company that I bought mine from would have them? I kind of like the original idea of how the wiper linkage was held on! Good luck, and hey pop on http://www.67-72Chevytrucks.com~!
      dne’

  3. Tom says:

    Hey, this really helped a lot since the guy I bought my truck from had already removed the old motor. The pictures really helped. THANKS!

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