Needless to say, the windshield wiper motor was
destroyed (melted) in the fire. I had a spare
motor, and found a second one on E-bay. Finally, a
friend gave me his extra motor. With three motors,
you'd think that one of them would have worked.
Wrong! Although some worked better than others, not
one had the strength to move the blades against the
windshield.
I found a place that offered to rebuild wiper motors, but they wanted $100 for the labor, and I could not get them to even return an E-mail. So, I opted to rebuild it myself.
First, let me give credit where credit is due. I based the work shown here on instructions found on a similar website about rebuilding a jeep. (Click here).
And the encouragement to attempt the rebuild came from the nice folks at Bob's Classic Chevy discussion forums.
Before continuing, I need to point out that if the internal "flapper" mechanism of the wiper motor is severely worn, you can rebuild the motor all you want--and it still won't work. If you can't get a good vacuum seal around the flapper, it won't move with any kind of force.
I used to really wonder why Chevy used a vacuum-powered motor instead of a simple electric motor. But now, however, having rebuild both types of motors (see heater section) I can say that rebuilding a vacuum-powered motor is infinitely easier than rebuilding an electric motor.
I found a place that offered to rebuild wiper motors, but they wanted $100 for the labor, and I could not get them to even return an E-mail. So, I opted to rebuild it myself.
First, let me give credit where credit is due. I based the work shown here on instructions found on a similar website about rebuilding a jeep. (Click here).
And the encouragement to attempt the rebuild came from the nice folks at Bob's Classic Chevy discussion forums.
Before continuing, I need to point out that if the internal "flapper" mechanism of the wiper motor is severely worn, you can rebuild the motor all you want--and it still won't work. If you can't get a good vacuum seal around the flapper, it won't move with any kind of force.
I used to really wonder why Chevy used a vacuum-powered motor instead of a simple electric motor. But now, however, having rebuild both types of motors (see heater section) I can say that rebuilding a vacuum-powered motor is infinitely easier than rebuilding an electric motor.