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Bus Discussion => Bus Topics ( click here for quick start! ) => Topic started by: biff on April 01, 2015, 05:46:40 PM

Title: Electric wipers.
Post by: biff on April 01, 2015, 05:46:40 PM
Well i jumped in on puting electric wipers on my mc8. so far so good. but it takes a lot of fab work. but i think it will be worth it.plus im saving over 600.00 bucks. ;D
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: gumpy on April 01, 2015, 05:55:51 PM
did the same on my MC9. Bought a kit that was designed for some other brand and "modified" them. Getting them to fit and work right was a lot of time, but I love them.
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: biff on April 01, 2015, 06:42:33 PM
Hay gumpy. or any one else do you remember the lenth of arms you ended up with on the motor and wiper shaft.thats going to be a trip getting that right. :-\
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: gumpy on April 02, 2015, 02:23:50 AM
I can measure them tonight. Arms and blades both.

Oh wait, you probably mean the arm on the back side.  No. I don't recall, and it's not easy getting in there. I'll see if I have any photos I can post or send.
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: TomC on April 02, 2015, 07:05:22 AM
I did the same thing on my AMGeneral transit. Had new arms made. Love the delay feature. Even though it has two motors, the electronic controller synchronizes them to stay running together. A lot of work to get them mounted, making a conversion plate, but now worth it. Not dreading rain with the old air wipers just stopping in mid stream for no reason. Good Luck, TomC
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: oltrunt on April 02, 2015, 08:25:45 AM
Gumpy, I would greatly appreciate a few pics if you have them as the wipers on my '90 MCI 9 need to be repaired.  Thanks, Jack
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: gumpy on April 02, 2015, 06:04:18 PM
I'll post some photos in the next few posts...
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: gumpy on April 02, 2015, 06:05:56 PM
"The message body was left empty."


Yes, it was.
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: gumpy on April 02, 2015, 06:06:55 PM
"The message body was left empty."

I know!
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: gumpy on April 02, 2015, 06:11:54 PM
.
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: gumpy on April 02, 2015, 06:12:41 PM
 8)
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: oltrunt on April 03, 2015, 06:33:10 AM
Thanks Gumpy, that was very helpful.  Jack
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: gumpy on April 03, 2015, 02:22:40 PM
I didn't put any comments in. The photos are hopefully self explanatory. The first one is a comparison of the old air wiper and what I started with. Again, these were designed for
some high end bus wannabe RV, I think. I got a good deal. They are Autex, so good quality. I chopped and welded to get something that would work. You'll notice I had to notch
the arm a bit, but it's precise and works great. I get perfect swing on them, but that required a few iterations of cutting and welding the short arm.

Mine are independently powered. I had to drill new holes in the dash below the instrument cluster because the new switches interfered. But I like them better there,
and I like independent control. If I recall, I used an electric pump from the explorer we scrapped for the washer fluid. The new arms have on-arm sprayers. I just had to
put some barbs in the washer towers and route the tubing in the dash. I got the barb kit from C&J. The threads are "special" so finding barbs was a problem. They had the
kit, though to change to on-arm washers. Cheap and easy.

Just take your time, and it's not too bad. Use as much of the original stuff as you can to make it fit.

Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: biff on April 03, 2015, 06:16:49 PM
We got new idler pins and brackets welded and bolted together today.now i got to figure out the length of the drive arms.i think i have a plan to figure them out! :o im going to try make temp adj arms. to get the stroke and speed right. :-\
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: biff on April 07, 2015, 06:38:33 PM
Well worked on arms today what a pain. will try them out out tomorrow. >:(One good point about this project most of the work has been on the bench.lot better than laying under the bus. :D
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: oltrunt on April 07, 2015, 07:32:58 PM
Biff, I've yet to start on the wipers on my MCI9, but when I was working on my old skoolie (to add a third wiper) I mounted the arms on a plywood mockup which made the whole process go a bit smoother.  This let me get the stroke just right without having to install and remove the wipers from the bus over and over again.  Jack
(https://busconversionmagazine.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1075.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw435%2Foltrunt%2F194_zps8ab9c3ec.jpg&hash=e9fb1fdc367f588b86ffa3a5b6055ef9d35883fa)
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: biff on April 07, 2015, 08:08:46 PM
Good idea.any thing that saves having to put it in and taking it out.50 times lol. ;D
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: gumpy on April 08, 2015, 02:39:44 AM
Quote from: biff on April 07, 2015, 06:38:33 PM
Well worked on arms today what a pain. will try them out out tomorrow. >:(One good point about this project most of the work has been on the bench.lot better than laying under the bus. :D

Lying under a bus beats the hell out of sitting behind a desk any day!
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: Oonrahnjay on April 08, 2015, 05:18:55 AM
Quote from: gumpy on April 03, 2015, 02:22:40 PM... The new arms have on-arm sprayers. ... 

      Gumpy, I've always thought that on-arm sprayers would be good.  Do you like them? 
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: Iceni John on April 08, 2015, 10:06:31 AM
Quote from: Oonrahnjay on April 08, 2015, 05:18:55 AM
      Gumpy, I've always thought that on-arm sprayers would be good.  Do you like them? 
Or do what I did when I replaced my Sprague washer system  -  I now have nozzles on the wiper arms and above the windshields, fed by two electric pumps.   With eight jets of fluid the windshield now cleans very quickly!

John
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: gumpy on April 08, 2015, 05:53:44 PM
Quote from: Oonrahnjay on April 08, 2015, 05:18:55 AM
      Gumpy, I've always thought that on-arm sprayers would be good.  Do you like them? 

Way better than the towers on the front that never sprayed in the right direction. 

The sprayers on my arms shoot in two or three directions so they cover really well. Spray on one side of the blade.
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: Oonrahnjay on April 09, 2015, 04:48:04 AM
Quote from: Iceni John on April 08, 2015, 10:06:31 AMOr do what I did when I replaced my Sprague washer system  -  I now have nozzles on the wiper arms and above the windshields, fed by two electric pumps.   With eight jets of fluid the windshield now cleans very quickly! 
John

     I like that.   
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: biff on April 13, 2015, 06:04:14 PM
Well got new wiper brackets done.i started makeing new connecting arms.this has been a time consuming project.but its been fun. :P
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: biff on April 15, 2015, 08:20:40 PM
Hi all.put pasenger side in today to try out, works great. will try out drivers side tomorrow.im going to haft to move the air line that goes to the air pressure gage.not a lot of room in there.if anyone wants i can post some of the diminsions that i came up with.it is a time consuming job. ???
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: oltrunt on April 16, 2015, 08:47:30 AM
Biff, I'd like all the info you can post!  No sense in reinventing the wheel.  Thanks, Jack
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: biff on April 17, 2015, 07:32:16 PM
Tried out drivers side today worked good.only problem is the motor is touching the dash support so i got to grind some of it away.this side is defenitly the problm child. :P i can see why the after maket guys use a shoter wiper spindle. ;D getting close to paint. and wiring. :o
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: biff on April 23, 2015, 09:51:52 PM
Quote from: biff on April 17, 2015, 07:32:16 PM
Tried out drivers side today worked good.only problem is the motor is touching the dash support so i got to grind some of it away.this side is defenitly the problm child. :P i can see why the after market guys use a shorter wiper spindle. ;D getting close to paint. and wiring. :o
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: DMoedave on April 24, 2015, 02:49:20 AM
Olrunt's pic looks like the 3 wiper set up on a MGB
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: biff on May 12, 2015, 05:15:12 PM
wipers are done.thay work great.here our some things i found out.1 the opening in the front of the bus dertermims the height and width that the unit can be.2 you only have 7 inches on the drivers side that you can go back in.i steal had to cut part of the dash brace for clearance.3 the distance between the motor shaft and wiper shaft is 4 3/8. max.or it wont fit in the hole drivers air vent on drivers side.the length of the motor arm center to center is 1 inch.the length of the wiper shaft arm is 1.5 inches cc.the connecting rod is 4.5 inches.cc.it took some trial an error.but i think its worth the efort.to make the switches fit i had to cut a little bit of the bottom of the light bazel.and part of the lip on the dash mount. if you use the time delay switches i dont think thay will fit. well this is what worked for me. hope this helps.cost was less than 200.00. I want to thank my friend ed for the all the welding he did for me.one other thing is try to get motors that you can index the shafts 360 degres makes getting your park pos. a lot easer.allso thay haft to be dynamic brakeing.il try to post pictures.
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: biff on May 14, 2015, 11:57:50 AM
Here's some pictures..........
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: biff on May 14, 2015, 11:59:20 AM
More pictures...........
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: biff on May 14, 2015, 12:00:18 PM
More pics........
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: oltrunt on May 14, 2015, 05:42:25 PM
Beautiful work and thanks for the pics.  Jack
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: Scott & Heather on May 15, 2015, 05:55:04 PM
can someone post a video of how these electric wipers work on our coaches? Would love to see them in action.
Title: Re: Electric wipers.
Post by: luvrbus on May 16, 2015, 08:02:53 AM
I like this a guy gets out side the box and does it on his own, the wiper manufacture that advertizes here may not care for it but I do