I’ve had several people ask me about this on my vista cruiser. Since I just made another set-up for a 67 Camaro convertible I am building for my dad, I thought I would make a thread about it. You can buy delay wiper conversions from companies like Detroit speed for $500 - $1000, but what I am showing is how to use off the shelf parts to build your own system. I used 1998 F-body wiper motors for both cars shown. Along with a 3-pole 8-throw rotary switch (seven speeds and off). You could use any motor you want if you can find the proper schematic as well as another switch for more/ less delay settings. You could even use a 3-throw switch and a separate potentiometer for infinitely adjustable delay speeds.

First, here is the schematic used with the 98 F-body motor:


Using the schematic, switch, and a variety of resistors close to the values shown above, I made a custom rotary switch. Beginning in the full counter-clockwise position and turning clockwise, the positions are:
Off
Delay setting 1 (longest time between blade swipes)
Delay setting 2
Delay setting 3
Delay setting 4
Delay setting 5 (shortest time between blade swipes)
Slow speed continuous
Fast speed continuous







This switch ($8 on eBay) works in conjunction with the motor below ($75 with shipping brand new from Amazon)




For hidden wipers, the slot in the mounting bracket works in conjunction with the locking paw on the arm when the motor spins backwards after turning off.



I cut out the mounting section of the F-body plate and welded it into my firewall, but you could make a bolt-in plate for a less permanent solution. You need to pay attention to where the slot is clocked, as that is what determines where the wipers will park. The arm goes onto a splined shaft, so you can re-clock the motor to whatever position you want by drilling three new mounting holes and the slot will still park the wipers in the right spot.




For the Camaro, I changed the wiring a little bit so that the motor does not park (no hidden wipers), it just stops at the bottom of its travel. Because of this, the slot seen would not actually be needed.



The final modification involves combining the original wiper arm and the 1998 arm to get the right throw distance for the correct swipe length. This took a little trial and error with the 1998 arm on the vista, but the Camaro uses a solid arm so it simply needs to be the same length as the original while still mounting to the new motor and original wiper linkage.

The Camaro switch will be mounted in the console along with a rotary headlight switch. The switch in the vista is mounted here between the headlight switch (factory pull type) and power mirror switch:

Hope this helps some of you looking to add something like this. I will add that while the vista has not seen much rain since finished, the few times I did get caught this worked really well.

Also, be sure to make sure none of the metal terminals will contact anything in the area where the switch is mounted. I made a plastic shroud to cover the switch on these cars before mounting them.

 

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

 

Wow, great work, thanks for sharing

 

This is hot rodding! This is the way it started, this is when it’s at its best.

I like this kind of creative thinking.