Installing EZ Wiring Universal Wiper Kit And Correctly Setting The Maximum Sweep

They looked cool, but their flat bases weren’t going to work with the curved cowl of the ’46 …

… though it was nothing a little work with a coarse file couldn’t fix. With the file clamped in the vise, I ran the escutcheon along it to achieve the desired curve, which was better than damaging the soft aluminum parts by clamping them in the vise.

That’s better. Now they look like they were made for the ’46. I’ll polish them later.

Here’s what the wiper gearboxes look like before installation, with the escutcheon and all hardware in place. The threaded tubes offer plenty of adjustment, their length meaning they should clear underdash components in most applications.

For easier access we swapped these bolts around so we could use a wrench on the backside, with screwdriver access from the front. This will make future maintenance easier.

Here’s what’s inside the gearboxes: the wiper driveshaft with a toothed gear at one end and a groove to locate the set screw for the splined wiper drive at the other. The groove is long enough to allow for shortening of the shaft (and its corresponding outer threaded tube) by around an inch.

I cut a couple of short lengths of tubing at an angle to match the escutcheon, in order for the assemblies to clamp either side of the cowl sheetmetal securely.

They fit, and the shafts are perpendicular to the windshield too.

I had to trim part of the dash rail away to allow the gearboxes to mount where I wanted them. I could have shortened the shafts and mounted them so the shafts weren’t perpendicular to the glass, allowing the wiper arms to operate at an angle—they do have joints in them to keep the spring tensioned, which would allow them to work in this way—but I wanted to do it “right”. The lower edge of the card template follows the curvature of the dash, which will have to clear the gearboxes.