Hello All,

New member here. My father passed away, so his 1956 F100 Panel Truck now lives in my shop. I found a box of new parts, when cleaning out his garage, so I wanted to start putting them on the truck. The first thing I started to tackle was installing new wiper arms and blades.

I discovered that he had disconnected the linkage arm from the motor that goes to the passenger side spindle (at the cowl). I quickly learned why... when I attached the linkage arm and turned on the wipers, the motor made a terrible knocking sound as the linkage arm became bound up, not letting the motor pivot turn.

After investigating a bit, I found that the spline that the wiper arm sits on wants to turn "down" as the first motion. So, the wiper blade goes down onto the cowl and becomes stuck, which binds the motor.

I tried to install the end of the linkage arm on the other side of the tab at the spindle (if that makes sense) but it did the same thing. All I can see is that the wiper blade wants to turn down instead of up when I turn on the wipers.

The motor pivot is spinning counter clockwise, when looking at it under the dash.

Is there a drivers & passenger side for the wiper arm mounts? Is something backwards?

Any help is really appreciated. I would really like to get Dad's truck the way he wanted it.

Thank you.

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Damn that's a nice looking panel..post up my pictures...

 

Here is my set up. Any idea if this looks correct?

I tried switching the linkage arms, and mounting the passenger side first. When the motor starts up, the linkage still turns the spindle counter clockwise and sends the wiper blade down onto the cowl.

Spindle at the cowl...

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The linkage arm..

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This the only way it seems possible to mount the arm to the spindle, under the dash. With the arm on top of the little finger tab.

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I tried to get it to go on with the arm below the finger tab, but the angle doesn't work. The silver spindle arm rotates up and hits the underside
of the dash before I can get it mounted on the ball.
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The linkage arm in the last picture should be on the opposite side of what it is now
this pic shows how it should look under the dash
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Yeah, I think I've isolated this problem down to the initial rotation of the wiper spindle. I'm trying to figure out why the passenger side wiper rotates downwards instead up upwards when I turn on the wipers.

 

This is an electric system right and not a vacuum system..?

 

Yes sir, electric system.

 

Can you post any pictures from under dash..? I'd actually like to see more pictures of the truck in general too when you get the chance..

 

I put my wiper system together as a puzzle also. My truck was a basket case and the wiper assembly came off a 56 wrecker that was in the woods for 50 years! I was sure I could see how it all worked but when I put it as I thought it should be, one side was great and the other went backwards or I think down. ( Sorry this was a couple years ago and I can't really remember it all). Anyway one side worked great so I didn't want to mess with that right? Wrong... I switched the side I thought was OK with the other side on the motor crank and it worked Ok, so put the other crank on the other side and now both worked! The one thing about mine though is the park doesn't work, so you have to turn it off at the right time or the blades will stop wherever you stop them. I was really happy that this old wiper motor worked at all but I plan to replace it sometime. Anyway, just keep trying it and you should be able to finally get it to work, unless there was a problem in the first place and that's why your Dad took it apart.... My condolences on the loss of your father.

 

Hi Greg, thanks for the reply. Just wondering, are you saying that you switched the linkage arms on the motor under the dash? Or are you talking about switching the spindles that go through the cowl, and the wiper arms connect to?

Thanks.

 

I switched the arms from the crank on the motor. I can't remember if the crank fits on the motor only one way or 2, if it goes 2 ways you'll have to make sure that is right. I'm pretty sure the spindles that go thru the cowl are both the same, at least in the Mid Fifty catalog they are the same part # right and left. But yes I switched the arms that are under the dash side by side from where I first started then it worked. I was also thinking are you sure your motor is wired correctly? I don't know if it could run back wards, but i kinda doubt it as it prolly gets its ground thru the body of it....Good luck, you'll get it.

 

Here's a look at my system... maybe someone can see something that I am missing!

Wiper motor. This is AFTER I turned the motor to face the passenger fender. It was originally facing the driver's side. I was hoping that changing the "stop" position of the motor crank would fix my issue. Now the driver wiper goes down onto the cowl when I turn on the wipers. Used to be the passenger side did that. I will turn it back around in the morning.
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This is the motor, looking under the dash. I tried pulling the arms off and putting the passenger side on first, but no change. Also, the driver's side has a larger mounting hole that fits over the rotating cylinder, so I'm certain this is the way it's supposed to go on.
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Passenger side linkage arm. This is where I'm having problems. When the wiper motor is turned on, it rotates counter clockwise. That makes the linkage arm push towards the right of the pic. That makes the wiper spindle rotate counter clockwise, which turns the wiper blade down instead of up. So the wiper does not sweep up and to the top right (if looking from inside truck cab). It goes straight down onto the cowl.
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Driver's linkage arm. This functions correctly.
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I posted some pics of my wiper set up.

Here are some of the truck... my father used this as the work truck, for his business, during the summer months. #ad
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That is a beautiful truck. Now I see that your attachment to the motor has both arms going to the same pivot. I'm pretty sure mine goes to 2 separate pivots. I will try to get a pic today. I had to weld in the whole top of the firewall off a old 56 f350 wrecker, cuz the firewall in my truck is actually a 55 and had no mount for a 56 wiper motor- long story- 53-55 wiper motors were inside under the dash. Anyway I'm going to attach some pics of my wiper motor mount and try to get some more pics today. Heres some pics of the part wrecker #ad
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OK, I am pretty sure you are missing the "center link" Go on Mid Fifty site and punch in part # 3023 in their search. after it comes up punch details and there is a pictures that scroll along one of them is a drawing that shows how the center link goes. If I remember right the 2 arms don't go to the same spot as you have. Maybe look thru all your dad's parts and maybe you have it. Good luck, I'll still try to get a pic under my dash if I can today( doubtful it will work).