Windshield Wiper help...

[36494]

Hi,
I'm a officer in a fire dept and new to the boards here... My department has a 1983 M35A2 that we use as a Forestry Fire brush truck. Over the years its come under some disrepair, and its become my job to bring it back to 100%. The first thing I'm having some difficulty with is the windshield wipers. Allegedly they have never worked right, but I'd like some info. on how they're supposed to work in the first place. I'm very mechanically competent, but just can't figure these out. I believe they work on some sort of vaccuum or air-assist system, but don't know...
Any help??

Thanks alot for any info!!!

Dan

also-- anyone know a good place to get a new j-pipe? just the flexpipe to the stack is all I need... thanks again!

 

[FSBruva]

They are powered by the air system... there is a little knob (1 inch diameter) on the dash to the left of the steering wheel that controls the air to them. It is reversed thread, so turning the knob to the right backs it out, and shuts off the air. To turn the wipers on, turn the knob to the left.

All of this is in the manuals, by the way. We have all of them here, (on the left, "Technical Manuals") or you can order the paper copies off Ebay. You'd be surprised how much you can learn by reading the instructions!!!

 

[micky]

Technical Articles also has a good writeup on maintaining and upgrade of your wipers.

 

[Low-Tech-Redneck]

If they've budgeted you some funds to buy new parts, the easiest thing might be to just get new wiper motor units (assuming that the reason they aren't working is because they've just gotten stuck from disuse, not that they aren't getting air)

The wiper motors in our deuce were defective, one didn't work, the other only worked one way (blade would go out, but not return)

We tried to open them up and get them working, but it was too much of a headache so we just got new ones.

 

[wallew]

Saturn has a pair of windshield wiper motors that are still air assist, but have a much larger drive motor. They sell for $160 for the pair.

Consider the 'windshield wiper' conversion. You use a regular wiper arm AND wiper and they are much more efficient than the ones the military put on. I am going to do this once I get my motors rebuilt or replaced. I've seen these replacement wiper arms/blades in action and they are MUCH better than the original design.

Also, if you want ALL the TM's contact rdixiemiller. He'll drop them to CD and send them to you for $5! I got mine from him and I've already used them several times.

You find the pages you want, print just those pages out and take them to the truck with you so you know what you're doing with out having to haul one (or more) manuals to the truck to do the work you've decided to do.

Hope that helps.

jim

 

[36494]

thanks for all the info! I dont really have a budget for the truck, but I can always present estiamtes and see if they get approved! And as far as the technical articles, I'm still new to the site, and I'll be checking those out now! Thanks again for everyones input!!

Dan