I've got two leaky valves controlling my wipers. Driver's side is worse than passenger, but they both leak and have trouble parking the wipers. Luke recommended just replacing the valves and not trying to rebuild.
I have the two new control valves, and of course they are not a direct bolt-in job. The old ones had the air line input to the valves in the end, and the outputs on the side. The new one has all three on the end.
In order to install the new valves I'll have to re-bend the copper tubing from the sides of the old valves to the end of the new ones. The tubing is kind of short and already bent pretty tight.
My thought is that it will be much easier to remove everything back to where the air feed comes out of the filter mounted to the firewall and run new DOT nylon tubing from there.
Here's the question...
The output of the filter has a T mounted on it with a 1/4" copper tube running to the washer valve (which is staying) and a 3/8" copper tube running to the control valves for the wipers. Both sides appear to be connected with compression fittings.
Is there a way to transition from the existing T fitting coming out of the filter to the new nylon, or am I going to have to replace the T fitting and find a way to tie the old copper to the one side of it?
Or, is there an easier way to do this?
Change it all over to nylon. I did that to mine last year. Reuse old fittings with new dot ferrules or standard non dot ferrules depending on which work. Put inserts or reinforcement sleeves into ends of nylon tubing before assembling. I ran my exhaust from each motor down through floor to the outside of coach body. I don't like inhaling that oil,water, air mist when running. Made it a lot easier to install my pulse wiper kit, btw.
Quote from: chessie4905 on July 11, 2019, 10:19:01 AM
Change it all over to nylon. I did that to mine last year. Reuse old fittings with new dot ferrules or standard non dot ferrules depending on which work. Put inserts or reinforcement sleeves into ends of nylon tubing before assembling. I ran my exhaust from each motor down through floor to the outside of coach body. I don't like inhaling that oil,water, air mist when running. Made it a lot easier to install my pulse wiper kit, btw.
Are you saying that you were able to reuse the compression fittings from the copper just by installing the reinforcements? The guy at the shop I went to suggested replacing all the compression fittings over to ones specially made for the nylon.
If it fits and if it makes air integrity...
No need to spend money when stuff will re-use.
Exhaust lines to below the floor is mission critical in a bus conversion. We have enough stink without the wiper lube joining in...
Happy coaching!
Buswarrior
Quote from: buswarrior on July 11, 2019, 11:09:16 AM
...Exhaust lines to below the floor is mission critical in a bus conversion. We have enough stink without the wiper lube joining in...
Mine already exhaust below the floor.
No! You reuse existing fittings.( Tees, elbows, etc) New lines, new ferrules ,( compression rings), and metal inserts to reinforce tubing from collapsing when you tighten the nuts. The dot ferrules are shaped slightly different than household type and should be used only. Inserts don't care.
You cannot reuse ferrules as they shrink down when installed and are not reusable.
Quote from: chessie4905 on July 11, 2019, 04:40:46 PM
No! You reuse existing fittings.( Tees, elbows, etc) New lines, new ferrules ,( compression rings), and metal inserts to reinforce tubing from collapsing when you tighten the nuts. The dot ferrules are shaped slightly different than household type and should be used only. Inserts don't care.
You cannot reuse ferrules as they shrink down when installed and are not reusable.
So the basically I'm reusing everything but the ferrules and the copper tubing? Replace the copper with nylon tubing, and use new ferrules and I should be all set? Or am I missing something?
The guy at the shop seemed to think that the compression fittings for the nylon were different than those for the copper that I currently have. Sure would like to be able to reuse all those rather than buy new.
I reused my fittings.
It's all a rather moot point, if you don't get matching bits...
Take it all to the store and see if you can make up enough bits?
Lots of @$# scratching on here, not enough @$# moving?
Happy coaching!
Buswarrior
Quote from: richard5933 on July 11, 2019, 05:00:43 PM
So the basically I'm reusing everything but the ferrules and the copper tubing? Replace the copper with nylon tubing, and use new ferrules and I should be all set? Or am I missing something?
The guy at the shop seemed to think that the compression fittings for the nylon were different than those for the copper that I currently have. Sure would like to be able to reuse all those rather than buy new.
You can use the fitting the nuts are different but they still work a 1/16th of a inch longer the difference is nothing to worry about lol unless you are using the Chinese junk,If I was doing I would pull both motors and at least clean the 2 you are going end up doing it later anyways www.rometruckparts.com is a good source for air wiper motor parts
If you need the special grease, I had to order 10 from Mohawk to get them to order it from Sprague. Luke didn't have it.
Some claim they use other lubes with satisfactory results.
I used regular old white grease to rebuild my wiper motors about 5 years ago. Still good.
JC
A good place to put the air wipers is in the trash. Get the electrics and never look back. Just sayin... :)
Quote from: Dave5Cs on July 12, 2019, 05:59:14 PM
A good place to put the air wipers is in the trash. Get the electrics and never look back. Just sayin... :)
If you know of a bolt-in replacement for the air motors on a GM, I'm all ears.
Otherwise, I'm sticking with what works.
My nephew just converted the wipers on his 4104 to electrics. Said it was relatively easy. He said the cost was 275 to 300 dollars. Course the 04 wipers come out the front and are not articulated. Different animal than the Buffaloes.
Autex.com has many electric wiper kits and are direct replacement. Mine never worked. Plus you get motors switches and plug and play as well as intermittent. You lose a lot of airlines that leak as well as new switches that don't. :) Took us about an hour to pull all the old stuff and put in the new ones.
I changed my 2 air wiper motors to 2 electric motors. It was the best thing to do. Even though there are two separate motors, the electronic controls keep them in synch. Now I have infinite variable intermittant speed plus low and high. Best conversion yet. Good Luck, TomC
Quote from: Dave5Cs on July 13, 2019, 08:45:06 AM
Autex.com has many electric wiper kits and are direct replacement. Mine never worked. Plus you get motors switches and plug and play as well as intermittent. You lose a lot of airlines that leak as well as new switches that don't. :) Took us about an hour to pull all the old stuff and put in the new ones.
Don't see anything on their website for GM buses. That's the problem I have seen elsewhere - lots for MCI and Eagle, but not GM.
That's what I've been saying for the last couple of years. Nothing for GM Buffaloes!If they were similiar as MCI or Eagle, they would offer a kit.
NLC-GM-EAG-002 GMC 4104, 4106 Buses can use this EAG002 model, But must be lightly modified to fit... $895.00
These are the ones but need a little moding.
Quote from: Dave5Cs on July 13, 2019, 09:13:53 PM
NLC-GM-EAG-002 GMC 4104, 4106 Buses can use this EAG002 model, But must be lightly modified to fit... $895.00
These are the ones but need a little moding.
You do a lot better on price using electric wipers from a Blue Bird school bus and you don't need a degree in heart surgery to do it.Air wipers work good if maintained lot of the newer buses offer both air or electric.the electric wipers cost less I saw the air wipers were $700 more expensive for a upgrade or down grade which ever you choose to call it
https://www.hodgesmarine.com/searchresults.asp?Search=Wiper+motors&Submit=
This is where he bought the motors and arms. Made a mounting plate to mount them. He commented that he swapped the arm return springs for heavier ones from a Ford pickup.
Certainly something to stick in my file for the future, but it seems that right now all I need to do is swap the two valves and replace a few feet of air lines. Much easier than fabricating new wiper motor mounts.
The air wipers work well, have infinite variable speed, and should outlast me.
Quote from: richard5933 on July 14, 2019, 05:20:18 AM
Certainly something to stick in my file for the future, but it seems that right now all I need to do is swap the two valves and replace a few feet of air lines. Much easier than fabricating new wiper motor mounts.
The air wipers work well, have infinite variable speed, and should outlast me.
They last a long time the regulator goes bad then they start slapping and don't have a constant speed when the air presuure goes up or down,the air wipers usually don't give you problems LOL I can see Daves not working it rains very little where his bus lived
And 1979 probably could use a complete rebuild. They probably have a recommended service like other items.
Quote from: chessie4905 on July 14, 2019, 06:12:34 AM
And 1979 probably could use a complete rebuild. They probably have a recommended service like other items.
Maybe so, but not right now. I talked with Luke about it, and he said that he didn't see any sign of a problem with the wiper motors themselves, just the valves. Only 47,000 miles on the bus total. I know that seals dry out, but it's not on my short list. I even asked Luke about getting a rebuild kit to have on hand just in case, and he didn't see any reason.
Air wipers are very good, and are easy to fix.
JC
Actually Richard, I wasn't referring to yours, as they should be in decent shape.
Quote from: richard5933 on July 14, 2019, 07:34:17 AM
Maybe so, but not right now. I talked with Luke about it, and he said that he didn't see any sign of a problem with the wiper motors themselves, just the valves. Only 47,000 miles on the bus total. I know that seals dry out, but it's not on my short list. I even asked Luke about getting a rebuild kit to have on hand just in case, and he didn't see any reason.
Luke is doing you a favor you never know what kit you will need till you remove the wiper motor anyways GM did some crazy stuff,that really pissies you off when you buy a kit and year later find out it's the wrong kit BTDT
When I took mine out many years ago the valves on the back literally felll apart. They were some kind of composite. I got new ones and new o rings from Luke. Put it all back to together with the air lube etc and they worked for another year and then started slapping the center bar. Pulled them out took them apart and cleaned and lubed again. worked for 3 months and yes we did use them especially in the Tahachapie Mountains as well as the coastal runs with all the wet fog.
I pulled them out and sold them put in the electrics and they work great. Have not touched them in 8 years.
:)
While you're faffing about with new air lines, consider also installing some air line misters, one for each side, to continuously lubricate the motors with a fine mist of oil. I did this some years ago when I rebuilt my driver-side Sprague HP200, and now both motors work smoother than ever before. I use air tool oil, but any light oil should work fine. My misters were from Harbor Fright, but they're now discontinued - maybe Grainger has a Norgren that will work?
John
They are available on Amazon.