An intermittent drive (10) for intermittently advancing a cleaning head (50) for sequential cleaning of filter bags (44) in a bag house (12). The intermittent drive includes a ratchet wheel (80) secured to a central shaft (74) on which the cleaning head is radially mounted. A drive plate (90) in proximity to the ratchet wheel is continuously rotated by a drive motor (83) about a drive axis (88). An elongated drive arm (94) has a base end portion (100) pinned to the upper surface (92) of the drive plate at a point radially offset from the drive axis. The drive arm (94) also has a distal end portion (102) that is engageable with the teeth (82) of the ratchet wheel. The bottom surface (98) of the drive arm frictionally contacts the upper surface of drive plate to urge the drive arm into engagement with the ratchet wheel teeth. During a part of each rotation of the drive plate, the distal end portion of the drive arm slides over a tooth of the ratchet wheel, and the ratchet wheel and cleaning head remains stationary. During the completion of each rotation of the drive plate, the distal end portion of the drive arm engages a tooth of the ratchet wheel and rotatably advances the ratchet wheel to index the cleaning head.