Vacuum wiper motor not working right

I've searched for this and found some help but not all of the answers. My vacuum wiper motor (only have driver's side, passenger side is hand crank) works for about 2 or 3 swipes and then gets stuck. I've taken it apart about a half dozen times now to clean and lubricate. I've tried various lubricants from wheel bearing grease to assembly lube to engine oil. The problem is, the flapper (or whatever it's called) swipes away all of the grease until the housing is bone dry and that's when it quits working. Everything from heavy grease to lighter oils just gets squeegeed away until there is nothing left on the housing walls.

So my question is, is the flapper supposed to be so tight that it essentially becomes a squeegee? Or should it not be scraping the inside walls and removing all of the grease? I tried soaking it in engine oil hoping that it would make it softer. But then I read somewhere that it should never be lubricated with detergents or it will deteriorate. Oops.

 

I've heard that graphite is a better alternative to oils, but with mine I've been unable to get very good results - so I'm not sure that will help you. Actually, I think it has more to do with the flapper than with the lubricant in my case. Thicker gummy lubes are bad for these. There's a good article on the CJ-3B page in their tech section where I got the graphite idea.

It sounds like yours (and mine too) may be due for a rebuild. Try www.wiperman.com for Trico wiper motor rebuilds. They are not cheap, but worth it if you are determined to use the original vacuum motors ... like me.

 

Yeah I did find that in my searches. He says to use wheel bearing grease (of course, I find other sites where people say never use wheel bearing grease) so that is what I first tried. But the paddle fits in there so tightly that it literally scrapes the walls dry leaving no lubrication on the walls after a few swipes. It will work for about 2 or 3 swipes, getting slower each time until it stops. I take it back apart and the housing walls are bone dry, all of the grease has been squeegeed away.

I read that ATF works good but I think it will be too thin and just leak out. Graphite might work, maybe I'll try that next.

 

OK I have it mostly working now, I found the right formula. I soaked the flapper (paddle) in ATF and smeared the inside of the case with Vaseline. It works great without a wiper arm, with the wiper arm it still works but slowly.

 

When I did the frame-off on my Tux a couple years ago now, I went through both vacuum wiper motors. Opened them and cleaned everything. Re-assembled with Vaseline as well and grease on the shaft. My 225V6 pulls 20" vacuum from the manifold and will run both wipers on a dry windshield albeit fairly slow. With a wet window they run pretty fast. I installed a vacuum pump (freebe) that pulls 25 inches and on a wet window I have to push the ON knob about 1/2 way in to slow it down. Afraid it might damage the motor it moves so fast. I run test my wippers about once a month and have been doing this for over a year now.