Started wireing the 53 F-100 yesterday. Put in a cvr for the guages. Since it is 12 volts is there a way to check the wiper motor and heater motor without a voltage reducer? If these two items are not good i was thinking i should just buy 12 volt units, If good get a reducer. No sense in buying the reducer if 6 volt motors are bad. Thanks

 

I'm assuming you have a stock setup. If you do, the wipers should be vacuum and not involved with the electrical system at all. As far as the heater motor goes (again i'm assuming that it is mounted in the truck and you really don't want to take it completely out), get yourself a fully charged brand new 6 volt lantern battery and see if you can't get the 2 leads attached to it briefly. You might have to help the motor get started with your finger or a stick or something. But that little trick actually worked for me recently and gave me enough assurance that the motor was good on my 49. But here's gonna be your problem, if you're switching from a 6 volt positive ground system to a 12 volt negative ground system, you may have polarity issues to deal with on your heater motor. I'm dealing with that problem right now myself. If I'm wrong about this, somebody will jump on here and correct me I hope.

 

Electric wipers were an option in 53.

You can test the heater motor by simply touching the leads of the motor (do not run it through the switch) to the 12 volt battery for a second ("1 thousand one") and it won't hurt it - if it's good it will light off.

I wouldn't suggest you do that with the wipers though. If you have converted your truck, it's not going to have 12 volt appliances. It may have vacuum wipers, but if they are electric, they will be 6 volt.

My Magic Aire Heater in my 51 is 6 volt as well, it was the only thing I couldn't convert. At the time I restored it I was not an FTE member and we had not had the discussion about heater motors yet.

So, I used a large resistor type Voltage reducer called a "Vol-ta-drop." It works great to this day. You may find one somewhere at a swap meet or in a junk yard, but they are no longer made. There are no polarity issues with the heater motors.

My honest opinion is that I would replace/install 12 volt wipers in the truck and also replace the heater motor with 12 volt. And you MUST install new 12 volt switches with both of these conversions.

Here is the link to Newport Engineering where I got my 12 volt wipers with the delay switch:

New Port Engineering - Home of the Clean Wipe Wiper-Drive

12 volt heater motors are available at any good electrical supply house.

The "Vol-ta-drop:"



I don't recommend the Vol-ta drop for the wipers because of parking issues (long story) just replace those with 12 volt - you'll be glad you did.

If you find one of these here's how to wire it for your heater. Theheater is a high enough draw item that that is all you can put on a single Vol-ta-drop (the square item marked "20 amp" is an inline fuse)

 

Thanks for the link Julie. My wipers are electric. Speaking of switches will my original headlight switch take 12 volts or will i have to change that also?

 

Sorry. I didn't realize electric wipers were available that year. But do get yourself a lantern/flashlight 6 volt battery. It's helped me figure out 2 or 3 problems. Plus you can stick it right up under that dash and hold it in your hand.

 

How about something like this


Heater blower motor dropping resistor

 

Would a wiper (and heater) motor from a '56 be identical but 12v?

 

I have a battery charger that charges 6 or 12 volt. I use it to test 6 volt stuff. On the switch being large enough, the higher the voltage the less the amps so there should be no problem using it. It probably is stronger than any 12 volt switch.

 

Yo ucan use the 6 volt headlight switch if you want. The only part that won't work is the instrument lights dimmer. Yo ucan substitute it for a 56 switch if you want that to work

Looks good to me.

Ross, I think the heater motors are the same size - recirc to recirc, Magic aire to magic air. But last time I looked, (and it's been quite awhile) the 56 motors are more expensive that the 53-55s. Alot!

But we've learned alot since. Wipers, I don't know. But again I would imagine finding a 56 wiper unit that works would be pretty costly. Maybe not.