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Pre A windscreen wash pump - help !!

Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 1:46 pm
by JohnLiles
My '55 car has a manual pump under the dash , you push-pull the grey plastic knob until water squirts from the jets.

When I got the car the ( plastic) wash bottle was empty , I put some water in and pumped away and it worked !

some months later , having put proper wash solution in , would not work ,just some faint bubbling at the jets.
looked under the dash , shone torch on the clear plastic flexible tubing system , could see a lot of blackish particles , bit like soot , in all the flexibles , plus a lot of bubbles , and foaming a bit like a beer pour .

removed all the tubing , removed the pump , tried pumping water through. On the delivery stroke more black particles being pushed out the tubes connected to pump , both inlet and outlet . Also noted a bit of air bubbling out from where back lid fits on cylindrical casing . Assume that on suction stroke air is being pulled in through same place hence the two-phase 'beer pour' foam being delivered.

Have run some silicone sealant round the joint to see if that helps .

Question - is anyone familiar with the internals of these ( 60 year old ) pumps , should there be non return valve on inlet side to stop delivery back down inlet line - picture attached . I put a red hose on inlet side so I remember how to replumb it
Image

Re: Pre A windscreen wash pump - help !!

Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 3:56 pm
by Curt Dansby
Hi John

I suspect this is your problem. You have a black bulb in the washer(some came with red bulbs) The bulb was dried out and brittle when you put fluid in the system and the fluid finished it off. The black particles are pieces of the bulb going downstream.
Take it apart from the hose end, not much to it. If it is in fact the bulb I know someone who can provide you a new one at a reasonable price.

Curt

Re: Pre A windscreen wash pump - help !!

Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:59 pm
by James Davies
Here's a photo of what these typically look like on the inside after 60 years. They become very brittle. =)

Re: Pre A windscreen wash pump - help !!

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:50 am
by JohnLiles
Crikey ! Thanks guys , the pictures and graphic descriptions are really helpful !

Curt , I will make enquiries to see if can get a bulb supplied in UK , but if you can PM me the contact info for your source that would be great .

Re: Pre A windscreen wash pump - help !!

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 10:51 am
by JohnLiles
Just to close this thread , Curt helped me to source a bulb , postage was the biggest expense but it arrived fast .

Today I got round to opening the pump case and seeing what was inside . A black rubber bulb was looking its age , not leaking but dispensing sooty water on demand. I had been puzzled by seeing absence of one way valves when testing the pump with old bulb in place , however after carefully washing out the outlet port it regained a one way behaviour.

I had some weeks previously had our local garage man blow air thru the wash jet nozzles , and he observed that they worked one way too , you could only blow out from inside the car .

I replaced the old black bulb with the new red one , and with the base cap and some short test hoses attached tested it in the kitchen sink , squeezing the bulb like an old fashioned Edwardian era car horn.
It worked , sucking thru the inlet and pushing out thru the outlet !

I now felt confident to reassemble all the flexible hoses and clamp the pump back in place under the dash , the longest run of hose delivering to the furthest nozzle had to be replaced as the sooty particles had settled in and could be seen but not moved by flushing , and too long to push a Qtip thru .

Everything seems to work fine again , and I have learned a bit more.....I wonder if it was covered in the workshop manual of the time ?

Re: Pre A windscreen wash pump - help !!

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 6:23 pm
by Andrea Scaioli
Hi Curt,

I have the same problem with my pre A wash pump , bulb is old and broken.
Please be so kind to let me know if and where is possible to find it.
Thank you very much for your help.

Andy

Re: Pre A windscreen wash pump - help !!

Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 9:00 am
by Rick Albro
Andrea if you search on pipet bulbs you can then find by specification the one you need. Shipping will be more than the cost of the bulb. For your washer pump the inlet will need to be about 6mm and the 30 ml capacity one is pretty close to the right dimension. Shopping around last time I think I paid about $3 each and I bought several which have all now found new homes. For a one off purchase the cost in the range of under $10 is cheap. Do you have a date stamp and body style of your pump? I understand that Curt is one of the communities experts on restoring these pumps perhaps he has additional resources and suppliers. see also viewtopic.php?f=21&t=43193

Re: Pre A windscreen wash pump - help !!

Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:02 pm
by Jeff Trevillyan
I obtained the bulb for my '53 from Curt. Perfect fit!