One quick pulse of the button and the rest is fully automatic.

The pump delivers one full stroke of water to the nozzles for say 3 or so seconds.

As soon as water is spraying the wipers start automatically and continue several wipes past the end of water spraying.

There is an adjustment on the coordinator unit that sets the time delay for the after wipe.

My button is in the center of the wiper knob which is on the left side of the steering column. The wiper knob activates the wiper motor with a regular Bowden cable. The button closes a electrical contact.

The pump unit was easy to work on. There is a brass wire ring that can be removed with bare hands and allows the two sections to seperate. Just hold it together with your hands so as not to launch the fragile parts.

I replaced the two seals on the pump piston which is easy. I did not remove the rivets or take apart the pump valve or the coordinator valve and mine works fine. I did take apart the solinoid and replaced the wires and the little disc valves inside.

My car had a complete pump unit but no rubber tubing was connected. The two wires were in place however. My wiper motor was the wrong type for a coordinator. I got a good working one from WiperMan.

There was a belief the wiper motor was supposed to be on a slight angle but it sits level in my 54 Cavalier and all is good.

There was a good bit of discussion on this forum about how this was supposed to work as well as lotsa pictures.

There are different versions of the Trico Pump that work differently but by 54 I am convinced I have the correct unit.


Jim

I restored my MagNuMaticHydrostatic pump which looks just like the pictures on this thread.

1954 Cavalier

So here is what I know.

The McVee kit appears to be the only source for the parts that I could find. It had all the rubber parts. The two old seals on the pump plunger were my biggest problem as the rubber was petrified.

The new seals work perfect. Be careful when you remove the old rubber seals.

The pump body is Bakelite which is brittle so handle it carefully.

The rubber valves in my pump, and the Co-Ordinator valve worked so I didn't drill out or remove those parts. The cardboard gasket in the lid seems to be OK in my pump so I left it alone.

If I had been more careful I could have saved the little disk valve on the bottom under the solenoid but the replacement works fine.

Understanding how the pump works in action helped me understand this thing better.

So here goes . . . . You momentarily push the button in the center of the wiper control knob. This activates the solenoid which opens a valve to admit vacuum into the pump.

Vacuum in the pump chamber holds the solenoid valve open until the small spring on the plunger resets the valve cutting off the vacuum. This is when the piston hits the top of the stroke.

The big spring inside the plunger causes the plunger to return to the bottom and pump the water that was pulled into the pump chamber to the nozzles through the coordinator valve. The hose from the bottom of the pump is the pump discharge. This water flow moves the coordinator valve which admits vacuum into the coordinator cylinder which starts the wiper motor.

So a single brief push of the button sprays a good amount of water on the windshield and operates the wipers long enough to clean the windshield without turning the knob.

My car had the complete pump under the hood (for show) and remnants of the rubber tubing under the dash.

The instruction on this Forum was of great aid in the restoration of my pump. I use the washer all the time and in fact plan to dry it out before the temperature in Phoenix AZ gets close to freezing, noting Nobody sells washer fluid that won't freeze in Phoenix.

I assume the glass jar I have and the pump was original to the car. I had to get the proper wiper motor from WiperMan and found a workable coordinator on eBay. There is a decal on the pump lid which I believe is available reproduction. As I recall the red solenoid is 12 volt and the brown/black is 6 volt.

Jim

In my 1954 Cavalier the trunk light is a bare bulb in a socket.

There is a toggle switch down near the latch that turns it on.

I fully expect this is not original and I did wonder what the original trunk light was.

This said I should now try and locate an original if anybody knows of parts to be bought.

I thought the fuse was inline in what I assumed was the original wiring (I will check the diagram (which is on this site) below the trunk lid hinge.

I can turn on the light without the park or headlights on which is handy as I always take the Packard grocery shopping because of the SUV sized trunk and often after dark.

Jim

For those of us who have not seen the Packard Plant except on GE street view . . . . .

Is this new owner actually in there with enough heavy equipment to make a dent in the rubble?

It looks to me like it is pretty much a gutted shell.

How much of the original plant will remain?

I can visualize my 1954 Cavalier rolling across the bridge on Grand Boulevard on its way to final assembly.

Jim

On my 54th series the jets are inboard similar to the bottom pic, however they are part of the wiper mount. No seperate hole in the cowl.

Same looking jet with the little plastic washer.

I havent found a good replacement for the little plastic washer under the knurled adjuster and I keep making my own.

Jim

I found what I thought were trim codes on the right side of the glove box when it was all the way out.

54 Cavalier.

Jim

Too lean a fuel mixture will cause backfiring.

Maybe a vapro lock situation.

Check and see if there is fuel squirting out when you step on the gas.

I also never try to start a car with the air cleaner off as I have seen a backfire start a fire in the carb.

Jim

Not sure what car you have But:

You could measure the voltage at the terminals on the starter. That would be the car chassis ground and the output of the starter relay.

Using a piece of wire with a couple of alligator clips you can activate the relay and check the voltage with a decent meter.

Expect this to crank the engine so watch the rotating parts.

It shouldn't drop below 5.5 volts with the starter under load.

This would tell you if your cables are good and the connections between the battery and the frame and the engine are good.

If this is a 6 Volt car it needs heavy battery cables and I don't think anybody still sells ready-made.

If the battery cables are too light it may crank slowly and the voltage drop may be too great to fire the coil.

My car has the feed to the ignition switch connected to the starter relay on the same post the battery cable lands.

Jim

The Go has recovered.

I changed out the condenser (capacitor) inside the distributer.

The screw that comes with the new condenser is slightly smaller than the screw in my distributor. Maybe metric. After you hit the hole it just strips out.

This little screw is intentionally short and the vacuum advance is in the way and hard to see especially after dark.

In general it is a PITA to get back in but only takes ten seconds to remove.

I used a NAPA AL869 condenser; they were out of stock for the CS77 points.

The car seems to start quicker and seems a little peppier.

So I drove it to work today.

Jim

In the few minutes I got to work on the car last night, it appears that ignition is the likely culprit.

I expect the condenser inside the distributer has become shorted.

I have one of the old timing lights that has a neon flash tube and with it plugged into a sparkplug wire and the other side to ground there is almost no spark.

The points appear to open properly.

The car was running normal for one trip around the block and then it slowly started to fail. I managed to get it off the street and into the driveway. At this point it won't fire at all.

With the air cleaner off the accelerator pump delivers a good squirt of gas and I have already verified fuel flow to the carb.

I of course cleaned off the work bench just this past weekend and tossed out an old condenser which did work abou8t three years ago. I don't know if the local Autozonies still sell points and condensers. I'm thinking they are all about the same value which is 0.2 mFd in capacitor land. I may cut the old one loose and tag one on at the coil and see if it will start.

Fortunatly it didn't quit on the six lane road I take into work.

In the electronics business we have found the Asian made capacitors (condenser) are short lived.

Jim