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Old 04-28-2022, 12:10 PM   #1
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Air wipers - soft rubber tubing?

I bought a new air wiper motor (Sprague HP-200), and it came with barb fittings and soft rubber tubing installed from the factory. This tubing has no markings to determine manufacturer, air pressure rating, etc. I hooked the tubing up to my air compressor and tested the motor at 120 psi and everything seems to work fine. Ideally, I would just change out the fittings and run 1/4 nylon air lines, but these barb fittings seem to be integrated into the motor's valve (it's a non-standard HP-200, see long story below for more on that).

Is it ok to use these soft rubber hoses and somehow splice them onto 1/4 nylon air line that runs from the wiper valve on the dash? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the worst thing that could happen is that the rubber tubing pops off and my wiper stops working.


Now for the long backstory, for any that are interested:

My right air wiper had a bad leak, so I am in the process of replacing it. The original was a Sprague Air Push II, build date 1986. I couldn't find a direct replacement or the parts I needed to fix the old one. The official replacement is a Sprague HP-200, which would cost ~$210. I found a passenger side HP-200 on Ebay for $8 plus shipping, so I took a gamble and bought it. This cheap version had a couple issues with it, two of which I planned for and one that caught me off guard.

First off, the replacement did not have the correct shaft. I guessed/hoped that the shaft from my original wiper motor could be swapped into the new one. Turns out I was right. The old Air Push II shaft was a perfect fit in the new HP-200 motor.

Second, the new motor was an "ECAM" model, meaning that while still being air powered, it was designed to hook up to a computer control unit that modulated air flow, resulting in several discreet wiper speeds and an intermittent speed. I hoped that I could just disable or bypass all that electrical stuff and get a really cheap old-fashioned air motor. I got lucky again and didn't even need to modify anything. The fancy electrical solenoids slide right off, and the motor works perfectly when hooked up to the old "In" and "park" air lines.
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I took this image from another listing on Ebay, but it's basically the same ECAM HP-200 that I bought

The third issue is the soft rubber tubing mentioned at the top of this overly-long post. This motor valve assembly has long skinny shafts that the black plastic solenoids slide over. The shafts terminate in a barb fitting, and the whole shaft + barb don't look like they can be removed and replaced with a standard air line connection.

Sorry for the long post - the actual question was way back in paragraph #2

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Old 07-01-2022, 02:10 PM   #2
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Update: this $8 air wiper motor seems to be working just fine without any special pampering. At the moment I have the soft rubber tubing that I was so worried about jammed onto the existing 1/4" nylon air line. The only time that weak splice is pressurized is when the air wiper valve is "on", and in that case a lot of air is moving through the wiper motor. I don't think there is an opportunity for static air pressure to build up and pop the rubber tubing off the nylon air line. Time will tell if this fix is permanent, but it seems good so far...
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Old 07-01-2022, 04:05 PM   #3
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That looks like a great deal for $8. I would expect that solenoid costs $8 bucks on its own. Probably works a lot better than the vacuum ones of yesteryear, they were the worst
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Old 07-02-2022, 10:54 AM   #4
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you can heat up the hard plastic air line and push it onto barbed fittings if the id is the same as the rubber id. buy a barbed fitting put it in a vice and get a piece of plastic air line and practice one or two. a heat gun works as i have tried a propane torch with poor results. i also used the heat gun to bend and form my grey electrical conduit so i did not have to buy a bunch of elbows and connectors
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Old 07-03-2022, 03:00 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mmoore6856 View Post
you can heat up the hard plastic air line and push it onto barbed fittings if the id is the same as the rubber id. buy a barbed fitting put it in a vice and get a piece of plastic air line and practice one or two. a heat gun works as i have tried a propane torch with poor results. i also used the heat gun to bend and form my grey electrical conduit so i did not have to buy a bunch of elbows and connectors

That's a great idea. We're taking the bus out on a trial run camping trip, but I'll try this out when we get home. Thanks!
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Old 07-04-2022, 02:16 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by Rwnielsen View Post
That looks like a great deal for $8. I would expect that solenoid costs $8 bucks on its own. Probably works a lot better than the vacuum ones of yesteryear, they were the worst

Oh you young uns.


THE WORST were the ones where YOU flipped a lever back and forth on the inside of the windshield so that the wipers would move on the outside.
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