So I'm hunting down a fuel pump for my C1AE block and I keep finding pumps that go with such and such year with electric wipers or this year with vacuum - what do wipers have to do with fuel pumps? Just curious.

M

Cars/trucks with vacuum wipers will have a vacuum pump on the fuel pump to keep the wipers going when you go to full throttle and have no manifold vacuum.

   God Bless.   Tim                           http://yblockguy.com/

350ci Y-Block FED "Elwood", 301ci Y-Block Unibody LSR "Jake", 312ci Y-Block '58 F-100, 338ci Y-Block powered Model A Tudor

tim@yblockguy.com  Visalia, California    Just west of the Sequoias

ah... okay.  That makes sense to me.  Thanks!

That's a good question. I mean why? Electronic wiper technology was available back then so unless horrendously expensive why not use it. I just can't imagine some bloke sitting at a drawing board saying "Now what do do about the wipers?.....I know I'll connect them to the FUEL PUMP!"

They ran off manifold vacuum and the fuel pump unit was to help keep them from stopping during acceleration. That's why you see two connections on top of the fuel pump, one to manifold and the other to the wipers and vacuum unit for the heater.

Ol'ford nutCentral Iowa

56 Vic w/292 & 4 spd.

You must remember those were different times. Vacuum was standard and electric an option. Most people opted for vacuum. In those days, electric wipers drew a lot of current which put strain on the generator. Running the heater, wipers, radio and lights maxed out a generator. Specing a larger generator cost money too. Many cars had no radio in those days and not all had a heater. Unless you lived during those times, it is hard to understand. People just didn't expect all the latest.

Kenneth

Fredricksburg, Texas

Just as a side note: I have been told in the next couple of years new cars are going to 24 volt systems due to the large electrical demand. Heated seats, heated mirrors, nav systems, 500 amp + stereo systems, power seats, power windows, and the list goes on. Some even have electric steering.

Ol'ford nutCentral Iowa

56 Vic w/292 & 4 spd.

Going back to the teens and twenties, cars, if they even had wipers, were hand operated.  So the first vacuum wipers were a real blessing, even if they did slow down or stop when you accelerated.  The band aid for that was the vacuum booster fuel pumps, and the fix started to show up in the mid '50s with electric wipers.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

The "booster" fuel pump was a considerable upgrade. I still remember when driving the average basic 50s grocery-getter, pulling out to pass at night in a downpour was quite a thrill. Not sure, but the first electric wipers likely had no intermittent feature. I love the progressive variable speed of vacuum units.

6 VOLTS/POS. GRD. NW INDIANA

John, it must have been later than the 20's. I rode to school my first year in a bus with manual wipers. That is wipers that had a lever that the driver had to work. And I ain't all that old yet. In the second grade we had a Chev school bus that had good wipers going down hill. We went up the hills so slow that we didn't really need wipers any way.

Kenneth

Fredricksburg, Texas