1959 Ford Station Wagon Electric Wiper Motor???

[57tudor]

Hi Guys & Gals.

I was at the Wounded Warrior Car Show at Wyotech Collage in Long Beach, Ca. today. One of the spectators at the show came up to me and said, is this your Ford? Yes, I said. The man said he had a 57 Custom when he was kid. Cool I said, this is my first car and have owned it for 42 years. He said, I see you still have the vacuum wiper motor on your car. I told him that I like to keep as much of the original equipment on the car as possible even though it?s pro-street and that I don?t drive the car in the rain. He said he put a 427 in his car with a big cam and the vacuum from the engine even with the fuel pump assist wasn?t strong to run the vacuum wiper motor. He then asked me if I knew that an electric wiper motor from a 1959 Ford Wagon was a direct replacement to the vacuum motors on our 57?s. I said I have never heard or have ever seen an electric wiper motor on a 59 Ford Wagon and wasn?t aware of that. He said that the two wiper motor?s look alike, use the same cable to turn the pump on and off, use the same mount plate and that all he had to do when he put one on his car was run a fused B+ lead to the pump. So having said that, have any of you Ford fans ever seen or heard of this? If this is indeed true, then this might be the hot ticket for us who run high power engines in our cars. Pleases chime in to this and if you have or can take a few pic?s of this wiper motor, please post them. He said the electric wiper motor was only found on the 59 Wagons.

Thanks
Rick.
57 Tudor

[Lou]

The electric wiper motor from a 57 Chevy wil bolt right in. First I have heard of Ford offering an electric wiper motor was in 1961 but only as an option.

[JPotter57]

I had a factory `57 elec motor a while back, and it was a big devil, did use the factory cable switch to turn it on and off.  I didnt use it since it was a single speed, and just big.  Even the small custom motor I bought to replace it got in the way of my valve covers.  I had to remove the wiper motor to remove the valve cover and set the lash.  My current `57 has the `58 cowl grafted in with the motor under the dash.

[JPotter57]

Lou, my motor may have come from a later car, but bolted directly to the firewall mount.  It was a Trico motor, so it may have been a Bowtie part, it was in a box of parts that was in my ;ast `57 when I bought it.  So, I am not claiming that `57s came with electric motors, though some could have been converted early on with the Trico parts.

[Dakota]

early 58 Edsels used the Delco Electric Wiper motor, mine has it. due to supply issues i guess most got vacuum.

they are the same as 57 Chevys.

[BAMA_57]

I was told by the previous owner that my '57 has the '57 Chevy wiper motor but I've yet to get it to work.

[Partsman]

The original Ford parts catalog lists both electric and vacuum motors.
Bill

[Lou]

Partsman, which Ford parts book? I have what I think is a complete set 1949 thru 1963 by year and the master parts 49/59 & 60/65. Form number and issue date would help me find it.

[Partsman]

Ford catalog form FD9463 1949-1959 Ford car Parts and acc Illustrations catalog show both electric and vacuum motors and linkage on page 493 and exploded view of electric motor on page 494.  Parts catalog itself FD 9462 titled same as above but text catalog lists both electric and vacuum motors on page 636 Part # for vac is B9A 17508 A and electric is B9A 17508 B.  Both of these publications are left over from when I was a parts manager for Ford dealers.
Hope this helps Dates for both are 1964 last dates Ford printed these.
Bill

[canadian_ranchero]

ford had electric wipers as a option in 59.edsel corsair,cit.[merc body]had the option in 58

[Lou]

Thanks Partsman, I found it where you said. I never relized Ford offered electric wipers as early as 1959. thanks again.

[57tudor]

Hi Guys and Gals.
Thanks a bunch for all the feedback on this thread. Partsman provided the best info. I'm wondering if partsman could post a pic of the exploded view of the wiper assembly with the electric motor from that catalog for all to see. I'm wondering how large it is and if it is at an angle like the after market motor is. With my stock vac motor and my FE, I can get the valve cover off with ease. My friend has a FE in his Fairlane with the electric motor and has to pull the motor off to get his valve cover put. Thanks again for all the feedback.

Rick.
57 Tudor


I just got this pic from Bill (Partsman) today and wanted to share. See attached.

[Zapato]

The problem with using the tri five motor in the 57 is that you still have the cables, not to mention the cost of anything for those cars.  Ford almost did it right in 58 when they ditched the cables and mounted the motor under the dash.  Using the rods and a piece of the inner firewall of the 58 and a motor from a 59 thru 62 Ford you can do a much cleaner upgrade than just hanging the chev motor. I did contact TRICO a couple months ago and as expected that motor is no longer available.

Zap-

Being an option explains why while I was searching for a motor would find vacuum units for a 59 having assumed they had switched over to electric. 

[Frankenstein57]

The exploded parts view of the 59 looks to also use the linkage instead of the cables,it also looks like a firewall mount. I wonder if it is a different linkage than the 58. I had a long discussion with a guy with a very nice 59 ranchero, this summer at a car show. He said the 59 has very little in common with the 57-58 ranchero.  Mark

[JPotter57]

The `59 is different.  It uses arms also, but they are longer, the transmissions are spaced wider than the `57 and `58.  The motor is also further over on the passenger side than `58.  I did the swap on my Custom using part of the `58 cowl and the `58 wiper arms.  Its not that had if you have the car apart.  On the other hand, if the car is together, ant the pulleys and cables are lubed and adjusted properly, there's nothing wrong with that setup.  My cable had come unspooled and looked like a big cobweb in there.