Well,I now have electric wipers in my truck.

Almost.

I made my own bracket for a '78 Ford wiper motor (I used a bracket for a 6-volt motor as a starting off point), tried to be really careful and make sure that there would be no problems with clearance, etc., but when I turned them on for a dry run, the wiper motor bumped into the key switch, firing off a good-sized spark!

Further investigation revealed that one everything was torqued down, the wiper assembly had flexed enough that the pivot arm on the motor was now colliding with the wiper frame. I REALLY don't want to take the whole mess back out again!

I'm finished whining, for now at least.

 

Since I'm contemplating almost exactly the same kind of custom set-up, once you get settled down I'd appreciate some info on your approach to it. Maybe you can save me the same kind of pain! I'm sure it's not simple from what I've looked at so far...

 

WOW! Your wiper setup must be quite different from the 56 electric system my linkage is at least 4" away from the face of the dash. Of course the motor is on the firewall, but I've been looking at moving it under the dash. Linkage would still not be a problem just space for the motor under the dash so I'm keeping my eye out for a more compact motor before doing the swap. I helped gain more space under the dash yesterday by relocating the motor for the power cowl vent and building new linkage for it. The previous install had the linkage binding up on the edge of the dash and a lot of wasted motion due to slop in the linkage as well as not closing tightly. all is well now. Will post more progress pics after Tues.

 

I guess one good thing about having to take it out again is that I can take pictures of it.

I had only a little trouble with the '78 switch. It goes right in, but the threaded shank on the switch is longer than the '54 vacuum "switch" was. I just used the '78 nut as a spacer, and adjusted it until I had it right, and put the '54 **** on. Once I have the bracket right, I want to install a washer, and later on I'd like to put an intermittent switch in (optional in '78), which will also require scrounging the control unit from a junkyard.

I've got an idea on what to do with that bracket. I'll keep y'all up to date.