Wiper Upgrade

Ok, stock '64 wiper ass'y, 12v, 2 speed motor installed in a 6v SWF housing, direct fit. The wipers are on high all the time and run so fast that the passenger arm of the wiper came out of the stud housing. I'd like to have a speed control to slow it down when just misting. I've seen those boards that are made you can buy but is there any VW stuff that folks use to make this sort of contraption? Intermittent wiper ass'y of something like that? Also would like to change out the arm assembly so they will not jump ship when needed!

Get you a 67 wiper switch. I believe it is a 2 speep switch that will look just like the 6v switches.

Remember it's a 6v housing so it doesn't have two terminals. I'll have to change out to a different wiper motor/housing. I still want the wipers to park like a '64. I have an idea to use a two position switch and instead of the low speed use it for the timed or intermittent section with a twist pot to slow it's speed. Electronics will be involved just really started with this, just thinking out loud.

If the weather is nice this afternoon I'm going back to see if I can locate my wiper arm!

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2534258#2534258

The 67 switch would still work. Check out Glutamodo's post above and click to view his picture (see the bottom diagram in the picture). One terminal on the old 6v housing is fine. That one terminal will have two power sources connected to it. Power from 53b would be full power and would be your fast speed. Power from 53, would have a resistor in line, and would be slower. Andy says he used an "adjustable high watt resistor" so that he can fine tune the speed.

There is also a second resistor in his picture on the main power wire into the switch, but you wouldn't need that since you already have a 12v armature.

So Eric how do the Volvo motors work with a 6v frame? Are they real fast or is it like a low speed on the later Bugs? Does it turn the correct direction for parking on an early Bug? This is what I had in mind with a speed controller sdjustable connected to the knob of the switch. Kind of like the dash light dimmer on the light switch.

Which way do the wipers park on '65, '66 Bugs? Mine on my '64 park towards the passenger side. So from inside the car parked would be at 3 o'clock. My '66 had a later wiper setup with the nut on the arm/shaft connection and it parked at 9 o'clock. Towards the drivers side.

When I first left the house this morning for work of course I had a car on my ass and the screen was fogged and the rain so heavy that even in hyper drive the wipers couldn't keep up. I ran off the road was on the wrong side of the road all the while the ass behind me was on my tail. Pulled into a side lot to let the ass go on and to let the screen warm up and defog. Wasn't too bad after that and then I noticed a ways down the road that I had lost my passenger wiper arm. What an F-ed up morning! I love my VW but not in the rain.

Well, you don't actually use the whole Volvo wiper motor, just the armature itself that is inside the motor. The actual motors are slightly different and not interchangeable. The volvo 12v armature however is a direct replacement for the vw 6v armature. Since you are only swapping the armature, parking position will be determined by current frame/motor you have.

I never ran the wiper motor in my bug before the 12v conversion, so I can't really tell you if the volvo armature I'm using is faster or slower than a stock 6v motor. I can tell you, mine are NOT lightning fast, but not slow either. I think they operate at a good speed for light to medium rain.
Probably would be too slow for rain like this morning.

I'm pretty sure 65 is when they started parking the wipers on the drivers side.

I've bugged Andy (glutamodo) numerous times with electrical questions through private messages, and he's always been super nice and helpful. Shoot him a message and he'll probably tell exactly what brand/part # resistors he uses for set-up.

I think the trick (that I left out of the above post) is to use the 67 motor as well. I believe it will fit into the early car.

Here's my delima, I have ran this motor wiper combo for a while. This problem occured several weeks ago when on one cold morning I turned on the wipers to clear the mist and the grease was so cold that the wipers ran really, really ,really slow. Then later I had to turn them on and they slowly got faster and faster, like normal, grease warms up loosens a bit and the motor can turn the mech easier. Thus wipers run a little faster. Well these guys just got faster ans faster. After that everytime I cut them on they were wide open, I'm not sure how this has changed unless the windings in the motor got hot that cold morning and shoted out, resulting in a change in the electrical characteristics of the motor, speed, amp draw, etc. Other than that I don't see how the wipers would run faster.

I'm removing the ass'y this weekend to check it out on the bench. I'll look into a two speed setup.

bakertim2 wrote:I think the trick (that I left out of the above post) is to use the 67 motor as well. I believe it will fit into the early car.

will fit but park in the wrong position.