To my other TR6 pages

July 26, 2016

Windshield Washer Pump & Reservoir

[Click the pics for a larger view]

I was looking for a simple job to do in between some of the other major tasks that I've been working on lately.  Rooting through one of the boxes of random parts, I came up with the windshield washer pump assembly.

The assembly consists of a square plastic jug as a reservoir with a small 12 volt DC pump mounted on its lid.  A plastic pickup tube descends into the jug with a screen filter fitting on its end.  The bottle is strapped to a steel mounting bracket with an elastic belt.




A quick test showed that the pump motor didn't turn.  Figuring there was nothing really to lose, I took the pump/motor assembly apart.  The armature was in a sorry state.  The windings were burnt, and it was crusted with some black substance.  Now I'm sometimes pretty good at bringing things back from the dead, but I know my limits.




Lucily, replacement pumps are easy to find.  I expect it's because this part was pretty universal for British cars of the period.  Here is a replacement pump mounted on the original plastic cap.  The new unit is an exact fit, and even looks almost identical to the original.




The mounting bracket was pretty rusty, but cleaned up well.  I use JB Weld as a high temperature filler for rust pits before powder coating.




There wasn't really anything wrong with the pickup tube, but it was sort of hard and discolored.  The pickup screen actually had quite a bit of debris stuck in it.  I used some new plastic tubing, but it seemed to want to kink on the tight bend into the pump inlet.  A light spring over the tubing fixed that.




The elastic strap that holds the bottle to the bracket was toast.  It was hard to tell what it looked like originally, but from the color and construction I'm betting it was something like Pirelli strap that is used for upholstery.  I only know this because I used it in rebuilding my seats.




Last up was the piece of foam that fit between the bottle and the bracket.  I had a piece left over from my fuel tank rebuild that was a little firmer than the original, but pretty close.




Another finished piece on the shelf.




This was a nice leisurely job.  the only real cost was for the replacement pump at around $20 and another couple of bucks for the tubing and strap.

Comments to Ed at: elhollin1@yahoo.com

To my other TR6 pages