Cable wiper install

[rmk57]

If you want to kill a few hours time I highly recommend taking off and reinstalling your cable wipers. There really isn't any information in the 57 repair manual about which cable goes where on the main drum, so your kind of on your own. Anyway after a few sheet metal cuts and switching cables back and forth both the wipers finally sweep in the right direction.

[chapingo17]

Nice to know.

[Ecode70D]

Anyway after a few sheet metal cuts and switching cables back and forth both the wipers finally sweep in the right direction.

    Please don't tell me that you really cut some sheet metal in order to install your wiper cables. 

[rmk57]

    Please don't tell me that you really cut some sheet metal in order to install your wiper cables.

Nothing like that. A few cuts cuts on my hands, nothing that required stitches.

How did they put these things in from the factory? They must have had something to keep the cable ends secured in the drum so they don't fall out when your assembling it.

[RICH MUISE]

I don't have cable and pulleys any more, but I recall somebody posting that the manual shows an incorrect layout of how the cable iswound on one of the pulleys.
PS: if you want a project that will chew up more than a few weeks instead of only a  few hours, design and build a hard arm system to work with a motor that goes roundy round instead of back and forth, lol.

[lalessi1]

That was one of the first projects on my car when I first got it five years ago. The parts were in the cowl and apparently one of the previous owners gave up and left the pieces there. I had no instructions but with a little help from the forum, I got everything back in place. It seemed daunting but I took everything apart, cleaned it and figured out how it was supposed to work. I cussed, got a few cuts, wound the cables wrong the first time but after a day's worth of effort I got it working fine and I haven't looked back since.

[terry_208]

It's nice to know that the original can be made to work again.  Mine were/are completely frozen,  I removed them prior to media blasting.  I have been worried about reinstalling them.

[thomasso]

They work fine when properly installed.  As I recall it took me practically all day to  install them and that was with the dash out.  Some things are not fun.

[gasman826]

I've installed a couple of times and agree they are much easier with the dash removed.   They are much easier with the engine out and with paint that doesn't matter.  I did upgrade the Custom to aftermarket wiper system (Specialty Power Windows).

http://spwkits.clickforward.com/products.php?c=2&t=13

But...not an easy bolt in.  Powerful motor and intermittent option.  Works great in the shop but haven't driven at high speed.  On the Raunch Wagon, I've tried the 'no name' electric motor conversion.  The motor is weak and has a short stroke so the wiper doesn't go over the edge of the wraparound windshield.  I used the vacuum motor right up to the time I added a thumper cam with not enough vacuum to run the wiper motor.  My latest modification was the addition of a Delco electric wiper motor ('57 Chevy).  This motor is extremely close to a bolt-in.  The down side is that both the vacuum and Delco motors are strong enough to Park correctly and have a long enough sweep to go over the edge of the wraparound windshield.  This works fine under 50 MPH and/or mild winds.  Above 50 MPH and/or headwinds, the wipers pop over the edge of the windshield and pop back over the edge violently enough to lay the wiper blade over.  Cheap blades may lay over and scratch the new windshield or leave rubber marks on the windshield.  The current ANCO blades are NOT marking the windshield.  The springs in the tensioners keep the cables tight and allow shock to the wipers without breaking the cable.  GM and Ford used this cable system and both soon abandoned it.  If it was a good system, they would still be using it.

[rmk57]

I don't have cable and pulleys any more, but I recall somebody posting that the manual shows an incorrect layout of how the cable iswound on one of the pulleys.
PS: if you want a project that will chew up more than a few weeks instead of only a  few hours, design and build a hard arm system to work with a motor that goes roundy round instead of back and forth, lol.

I hooked up the cables in the order that the shop manual diagram says, and well, your correct about the layout.. If you would happen to turn on the wipers they way I had them they would start the sweep down instead of up. I reconnected the left side cables to the two center grooves and the right side on the two outside grooves and it works properly now. My electric wiper motor sweeps around 70 degrees counter clockwise.