electrical and ignition Windshield Washer

[Parksis_52]

I feel a bit silly for asking this, but what switch or stalk do you use to activate the window washer fluid? I have a 1969 02 that I bought a few years ago, and in that time I've never been able to engage the washer fluid. The wipers work fine on both the low and high setting, but for the life of me I can't figure out what will give the window a squirt of fluid when it gets dusty. My guess is the motor is in need of either a good cleaning or replacement, but I want to ensure I'm engaging it correctly first to help with the trouble shooting. Thanks in advance, sorry I know this is remedial... 

[DRedman]

The washer motor is activated when you pull the turn signal switch up towards the steering wheel.  It feeds the washer delay relay which feeds the washer motor and times out after a few seconds of squirts.  The relay is mounted on the passenger side firewall.  You should hear the motor wine when you do this.  For a quick test you may have to have to bypass the relay and/or switch by jumpering a ground wire to the brown wire at the terminal on the pump.  Also check for 12v on the other terminal.

[Mike Self]

Unlike later 2002s, your '69 has an electro-mechanical wash/wipe timer/relay--it's the tubular metal can clipped to the firewall near the distributor.  It functions similarly to old turn signal flashers--when you activate the switch, a set of points close, sending current to first the washer pump, then to the wipers.  The points are on a bi-metal strip, which when heated by the current passing through, bends slowly until the points separate, thus turning off both washers and wipers.  If this timer/relay has failed, you won't get any action--and they're NLA.  However, you might be able to carefully remove the cover and clean the points to get it functioning again.

 

Since you say neither washer nor wipers work on the wash/wipe, then chances are good that the relay is the problem.  However, if you get the wipers to work when you pull the stalk, but no washers...

 

Also, the original washer pumps--especially on the early cars like yours--are failure prone.  So you might want to take the pump off the washer bottle and test it to see if it work.  If it does when so tested but not when properly connected to the car's wiring, then the problem is probably the timer/relay.  If the pump doesn't work when tested, drop me an e-mail, I did a column on resurrecting dead washer pumps.  Oh, and don't forget to reconnect the pump motor properly--'69s don't have polarized plugs like the later cars so you can connect the pump backwards.  Brown wire is the ground.

 

cheers

mike

[Parksis_52]

Awesome, thanks for the feedback. It's a huge help, I appreciate the response!

[saaron]

I cleaned my original pump out per Mike's article and that fixed it.  The pump itself had hardened washer fluid in it - just seized the pump solid.  I think from just sitting in there for years.  Cleaned that stuff out and now it works fine.  Amazing.  It was easy to do, too.  I'm no mechanical whiz.

 

I also replaced the two squirter nozzles and tubing - they all had deposits of old solidified washer fluid in them.

 

Scott