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Sweet! Kev... Ernie in Arizona

Looking good Kevin.

Hope you are doing well

Thanks, everyone. Doing good and treatment is proving effective.

Here are a couple of pictures from the car show yesterday. It was held at the Historic LaSalle St Auto Row, in Aurora, IL. This is a nearly forgotten 1-2 blocks of street, a few blocks off the main downtown area.

It was originally part of the Lincoln Hwy where it jogged North-South from one East-West street to another.

Starting around 1905, many small Auto Dealerships were built along these couple of blocks. While most of the buildings are either empty, being used for other businesses, or being used for storage, the building architecture has survived in very good shape. I was even able to locate the O.D. Lawson Packard Dealership which was located at 121-135 S. LaSalle St. Currently vacant, the building's front facade is very similar to other small Packard dealerships I have seen.

Some of the three-story buildings still have their original working auto-elevators to move cars to the 3rd floor for storage.

Enjoy!

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The buildings on that street look awesome. It's impressive that they are in such good condition.

Love the sign you made for the car. I really need to look at doing something similar.

-Kevin

Back for Hershey after a 12 hour cannonball run drive home. Thanks to David and Bob for their hospitality!

Hershey started out wet and cold, next day was less wet and cold. Last day was dry, very sunny and warm. So for sure the weather affected attendance of both vendors and buyers.

A smattering of stuff I found at Hershey. A bag full of assorted trim clips, various Steele rubber parts for only a couple of dollars, wheel seals, a few scripts, some oil cans, the big Packard sign, a door clip, some license plates for a possible future to be discussed later project and some underwood decals I got for pennies. Also not some wood working tools. Ross was nice to bring me some stainless trim and I Pat Aldrich gave me a couple of washer coordinators when I paid him a visit on my way to Hershey.

Also, since we are in the area we have to buy Taylor Pork Roll. Very hard and expensive to get in the chicago area, buy plentiful the closer you get to the Philly area.

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Yeah Taylor ham is a must. If I had thought of it (and knew they sold it in Hershey) I would have grabbed some extras.

So trying to troubleshoot my Trico Mag-Numatic Washer pump, which I rebuilt back in 2009. It pumps, but it pumps anemically, but the bigger problem s that the coordinator never engages. I thought the problem was with the coordinator, but it is not, as I can get that to work if I put a vacuum on it separately.


So based on the letters in the picture below, here are the connections:

A) Engine Vacuum Source
B) Vaccum output on the solenoid
C) Vaccum input on the controller
D) Vaccum output on the controller for the coordinator
E) Water outlet for wiper jets

On the underside, there is a hose connection between the bottom of the pump and the bottom of the controller, which the fluid passes through.


I couldn't find and theory of operation on how the pump works. But this is what I am seeing.

With the car running and the washer button not pressed, I have a constant 20psi of vacuum on B.

When I press the washer button, the vacuum drops to zero on B and then comes back after the button is released. The water does start to flow from D, but not with much gusto.

Before, I was seeing vacuum being pulled on E when the button was pressed and released. I do not see that anymore. It's always at zero.

I was surprised that B always had a constant vacuum when not pressed, I would have thought that would have been only when the solenoid was active. But I confirmed this on another until as well.

I think that constant vacuum has something to do with keeping the liquid drawn up into the pump the against the spring pressure. Then when the solenoid cuts off the vacuum (when the button is pressed), the spring presses out the liquid through the hose on the bottom side and up through the controller and out to the jets.

So that I can understand.

But then I guess my next question is then, where is the source of the vacuum for E?

Is it being vacuum created on the backside of the piston by the spring pushing the fluid out?

Perhaps there is a seal leak in the piston/housing, and that is causing the weak fluid pressure and lack of vacuum behind the piston. I remember the housing had a crack in it, which I had glued, but perhaps that has failed.

Please let me know if the general theory of operation of the unit sounds correct.

There is very little info on how the pump actually functions.

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Not trying to ask a dumb question but did you verify that the large spring and piston boot in the bottom housing is intact?

As I understand it, A is the vacuum source and vacuum is also connected thru a passage in that solenoid assy and passed thru to B and via the short hose to C. When the button is pushed the solenoid activates and vacuum is admitted to the large piston section to pull the piston up against the heavy spring. Never tested to see if the vacuum is temporarily blocked at B when the solenoid is active but at any rate, when the large vacuum side piston moves up it also sucks water up into the small piston side water chamber.

When the button is released, the solenoid again blocks vacuum to the large piston and at the same time readmits air so the spring can start to push the piston assy down and expel the water. Vacuum is again (or maybe still) present thru the hose at C.

As water starts to discharge thru the separate coordinator valve section it pushes against the bottom of a rubber diaphragm or valve assy before it exits at D and goes to the nozzles. As the rubber diaphragm is pushed up by the water from below it also causes a port in a section above the diaphragm to open and let the vacuum present at C pass thru to E and on to the coordinator. Vacuum then pulls the coordinator piston back against a spring and starts the motor.

As the water is exhausted from the small piston chamber, flow diminishes and the diaphragm is no longer held open so vacuum to the coordinator is stopped. With no vacuum the spring in the coordinator can push the piston back and stop the motor. The length of time this takes is controlled by how fast the air bleed screw on the end of the coordinator lets the piston move. As I recall, instructions say adjust for 3 or 4 wipes after the water stops and to be careful not to bottom the adjust screw if trying for more wipes because the bleed valve can be damaged and not function if you do.

Ok, that makes sense. So the pump pressure is weak, perhaps only about a 6" or less stream. Sometimes it just dribbles. So for just an issue with the ability for it to seal correctly.

Probably not enough pressure to work the diagram in the controller section.

If I take the lower part of the pump off,
then by hand, I can get it to suck up via the inlet and then forcefully expel via the outlet. So I think the vacuum section of the pump is leaking and not able to fully suck up enough fluid against the pressure of the spring. So it is either something in the seal/check valve between the top of the pump and the solenoid or it's leaking where the crack was in the upper housing.