Excel Washer Pump fixed
Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2022 13:40
Hopefully this may be of use to someone! The washer pump on my excel was not working so I had a look at it today.
I took it off the bottom of the washer bottle and tested it with the multimeter and found that there was continuity across the terminals so this gave me some hope it was not fully dead.
My next test was to apply power across the terminals (I used my old CB 13.8v bench supply, but anything would do) and noticed 2 things, first was it still didn't work, the second was there was a slight vibration as power was applied, but not on reapplication of power however on reversing the polarity it repeated, but again no more. switching polarity each time resulted in a vibration or tick, this confirmed to me that the motor in the pump was not dead.
So next I tried plus gas in the inlet and outlet of the pump assuming that the pump side was seized, this resulted in a louder tick but no other visible progress.
Next step was to take the pump and put it in a coffee cup and fill said cup in boiling water and leave the pump in the water for 5 mins or so (on the grounds its a water pump so hopefully its fairly waterproof! and that the heat of the water would expand things and unstick them)
Having tipped the water away and letting it cool down a bit I applied power again, bigger tick! and I noticed that the white section in the pump inlet rotated slightly, reversal of power saw it rotate slightly the other way.
At this point I used some very very fine longnose pliers to work the white section gently clockwise then anticlockwise, and the movement slowly increased till I had a full rotation
Application of power again and it was working (first time in 21 years), so I put it back on the washer bottle and tested it with water in, and it's working perfectly now
I took it off the bottom of the washer bottle and tested it with the multimeter and found that there was continuity across the terminals so this gave me some hope it was not fully dead.
My next test was to apply power across the terminals (I used my old CB 13.8v bench supply, but anything would do) and noticed 2 things, first was it still didn't work, the second was there was a slight vibration as power was applied, but not on reapplication of power however on reversing the polarity it repeated, but again no more. switching polarity each time resulted in a vibration or tick, this confirmed to me that the motor in the pump was not dead.
So next I tried plus gas in the inlet and outlet of the pump assuming that the pump side was seized, this resulted in a louder tick but no other visible progress.
Next step was to take the pump and put it in a coffee cup and fill said cup in boiling water and leave the pump in the water for 5 mins or so (on the grounds its a water pump so hopefully its fairly waterproof! and that the heat of the water would expand things and unstick them)
Having tipped the water away and letting it cool down a bit I applied power again, bigger tick! and I noticed that the white section in the pump inlet rotated slightly, reversal of power saw it rotate slightly the other way.
At this point I used some very very fine longnose pliers to work the white section gently clockwise then anticlockwise, and the movement slowly increased till I had a full rotation
Application of power again and it was working (first time in 21 years), so I put it back on the washer bottle and tested it with water in, and it's working perfectly now