DIY Junkyard Wiper Motor and Intermittent Module Retrofit/Upgrade

[Rustybucket73]

This all started when the wiper motor in my '73 failed. Tried turning the wiper motor arm by hand, it was completely seized. I was already looking at upgrading to intermittent wipers and sourcing a steering column, but I thought I could come up with something better. I couple things I wanted to try and achieve with this upgrade; keep the original steering column and use all junkyard parts to keep the cost down.

Started looking at some aftermarket options, mainly this kit from Detroitspeed. I liked the use of the modern motor and separate intermittent wiper module, but could not get over the eye watering price. One of the things I noticed while looking at the kit was the wiper motor had three mounting 'legs', and after browsing through the rock auto catalog, they are most likely using a motor from a late model 07-12 gm truck. This was still a bit too new for the junkyards around my area, so I kept looking through the catalog. The wiper motor I settled on was one out of a 02-06 Camry, and available on numerous other Toyota models of the same year range.

Now that I had the motor sourced, I started looking for the switch and module. After a bit of searching on ebay, I settled on the switch and module assembly out of a 1980-1990 Ford F series truck. It was easy to find and seemed like the right piece for the job.

Before we figure out how to mount all this stuff, we need to wire this circus up and see if it actually functions. Luckily, http://www.garysgaragemahal.com has a great writeup and provides wiring diagrams on the ford switch. A quick search for the Toyota wiper motor equivalent and we have these two diagrams:



And after figuring out what goes where we get this:

The Toyota motor terminal symbols are marked on the ford diagram. A quick test on the bench and everything is working as intended.

I contacted Detroitspeed and asked if they would sell the adapter plate on its own, and understandably they said no. So I fired up autoCAD and went to work. One thing I decided to do with adapter plate was to make it a square and not to include a bend. This makes it a lot simpler to draw up and gets rid of any errors in the bending process. After sending the drawing off to the laser cutter, this is what arrived:


And with the wiper motor mounted to the adapter plate:


Size comparison with the original motor:


Wiper switch mounted in the dash:

[Rustybucket73]

So here is the motor to linkage arm that I just finished welding up. Showing the original arm below for comparison.





Not the best welds in the world, but the piece is solid and should be ok for what I'm using it for. It'll look a lot better after some grinder action and some paint.

Hole to hole distance is the same as the original arm, I think I kicked it up at a 45 degree angle and up about 30mm from the original plane.

[Rustybucket73]

Good News! The wiper motor kit is in and its working great.







Here's quick video of the motor in action:
Quick explanation of what's going on in the video.
1. Shot of the motor and the moving linkage
2. Low speed
3. High speed
4. Fast intermittent
5. Slow intermittent
https://youtu.be/oG8bgWqA7kg

[Rustybucket73]

Here is the interior shot with it all back together. Hard to tell its been modified at all.

[Mr Diesel]

I really like what you did. The wiper motors and even the new replacements have always been a weak link on these trucks. Very nice job.