Pluggers by Rick McKee for May 14, 2024

Because it’s the only time that you use them …… ;)

Pluggers remember the vacuum motor driven wipers. If you accelerated fast the intake manifold pressure rose and stopped your wipers.

Yep, time to put the new ones I bought on.

Pluggers should remember the old day’s wipers that ran on vacuum so when you would accelerate, the wipers would actually slow down… anyone a real plugger here and remember those early wipers?

It’s an illusion. The wipers aren’t used that often, and a Plugger each time forgets how to operate the necessary controls to get them turned on and working the right speed. So many things to remember on the driving wheel ‘stalks’.

It’s raining so hard that it’s streaking below the panel.

Eh to be honest that has never happen to we.

I remember the old jeeps had a small handle inside to work the wipers if the vacuum failed ;-)

Another windshield adage: If there’s only one bug stain on your entire windshield, it will be on the driver’s side and exactly at the driver’s eye level. So when you turn on the wipers, the part of the windshield that most needs to be clean will be the hardest to see through.

Haha…. Pluggers drive old rusty buckets

Since we most-likely don’t use them when it’s not raining, we wouldn’t know whether they don’t work then too.

Wipers quit on Dad’s Rambler. He ran a rope out the wings and tied it to the wipers. He drove and Mom wiped.

My truck had intermittent wipers. Sometimes they worked and sometimes they didn’t.

I keep my windows treated with rain ex. Wonderful stuff. The more water the better it repels. With those results I seldom use the wipers.

I was driving home from work one night, on the interstate, in a blinding rainstorm, when my wiper motor decided it was time to up and quit. Although I eventually made it home safely it was not an experience I ever want to go through again.

Murphy’s Law.

apparently, to qualify as Plugger, one must have a piece of s… truck.

let me reword that. …..one must have an undependable vehicle

Because he never uses them when it’s NOT raining?

Maybe they stop working because you drive a truck from the Johnson administration.

Had an International Scout that had a separate vaccum line for each wiper. My dad bought it for me for $300. Came from a mine in Kentucky, actually used underground its whole life. A slant 4 engine which was the left hal of a pontiac v8 engine. Pontiac used the right half in a compact car. At college I didn’t use it much but it still headed South rapidly. The starter crapped out, so I only parked on the tops of hills facing down. The headlights only worked for 30 minutes before the battery was drained (if you are wondering, the cause was the ground cable was painted and couldn’t ground to the body). The gas tank filler neck collapsed and I had to use a piece of hose and a gas can to fill up, and of course I couldn’t turn it off at the station (no starter). I was beyond stony broke trying to make it to Christmas break to go home to Memphis. Had an expired gas company card to a rare gas brand (Fina?), luckily the night manager let me buy two sanwiches and a coke and call it gas or I would have gotten very skinny by break. Muffler fell off. So I headed home to Memphis from Central Oklahoma, left at dawn. As the engine got more and more tired it began to shake and roar at idle. In North Arkansas I had to hunt for old rundown gas stations staffed by very old men or teenagers. Who wouldn’t notice the expiration on the card compared to a highway department orange Scout ($30 Earl Scheib paint job, thanks Dad!) shaking, rattling and roaring at their pump, while I wrestled a hose and a gas can to fill up. I think they wanted me out of the station before an explosion, didn’t even look at the card. Scout seemed to be on its last legs when I reached the Mississippi River Bridge at dusk (no headlights), when a traffic jam trapped me at the top of the bridge as dark descended. If there had been a gap in the railing I would have driven it into the river and took my chances. Finally freed from the jam. In my folks driveway at hard dark. Monoxide headache.

And if there were any leaks in the lines… your wipers would actually stop!

I remember my Dad’s ‘51 Chevy pickup truck. It had vacuum wipers. I used to disassemble them and soak the leather part in Neat’s foot oil to ressurect them.

It’s one of the Laws of the Perverse Universe

First car family had was a used 1950 Dodge and I don’t remember dad ever mentioning anything about vacuum to run it.