Stanley Doble
Call Me a Cab
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- 2,808
- Location
- Cobourg
Out here, where it is quite hilly (downright mountainous, once you get more than a few miles out of town), and where it has been known to rain on occasion, vacuum wipers will have you affixing a plastic Virgin Mary statuette to the dashboard. Pulling those long uphills in a downpour, when the wipers won't flap at all, is a wholly faith-based undertaking.
The better (more expensive) cars had a vacuum pump built into the fuel pump for such occasions. The wipers worked the same up hill or down. The pump was available for cheaper cars as an option. The last one I installed was on a 59 Ford six cylinder pickup truck, it cost $56 when the standard pump was $22. Needless to say this was a while ago.
You can also get a 12 volt electrical pump. Either of these is easier and cheaper than changing the wipers to electric.
Or you can just buy a Chrysler product, they started using electric wipers in 1940. Inferior makes like Cadillac and American Motors kept the vacuum wipers into the late 50s and early 60s.