Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Does anyone know of a company that can repair a Trico Mag Nu Matic windshield wiper? If the same company can also rebuild a wiper motor too that would be great. I've tried Ficken, but they don't do the washer.

I'm not familiar with that item, can you share a few details about it?

That's what Packard called the electrically activated washer with co-ordinator at least in 55-6 and maybe earlier. The ones I have taken apart usually have dried out & hard or shrunken rubber/plastic or something components. I have no idea where to get any of the pieces but have thought there ought to be a way to adapt modern material--just have not tried. Its kind of novel the way they work, but everything has to seal perfectly.

About ten years ago, McVey's (a Cadillac parts supplier) repro'd the cover and pump as they were used on other several other cars.

IIRC, you could purchase a "cover kit" to replace a rusty old "lid" (reusing your existing pump) or purchase a complete pump and cover assembly. I believe they also offered a repro of the original Trico decal, separately.

Not sure what they currently offer in the way of these parts.

Brian is right. McVeys offers a complete rebuild kit reasonably priced that at first glance looks to be correct for ours.http://www.cart32.com/estore/template/detailed.php?id=010650&referrer=/estore/template/thumbnails.php&cid=3&pid=101&page=2

Thanks for that link, Howard.

McVey's didn't have this rebuild kit when I discovered their initial offerings, but it looks to be "just what the doctor ordered".

Thanks Brian and Howard

When I called Ficken the other day they they mentioned some name that I couldn't understand on the phone and after asking him to repeat it twice, I just gave up. Now if they only have the part that I really need. I looks like the electric pump on my unit overheated at some point and melted the plastic cover and the wires leading to it are broken.

I doubt if the rebuild kit would have the plastic cover that you need.

However, if they no longer offer a complete pump and cover assembly (ready-to-use), you shouldn't have too much trouble finding a used, but rebuildable, core (with wires and terminals).

I never knew that unit was called a Mag Nu Matic, you learn something all the time. Mine was rebuilt by McVey's about 8 years ago, and they did a fine job.

Incidentaly, I thought the electric component was just an electric solenoid to admit vacuum to pull the pump piston up; it's not an electric pump as I believe I read somewhere in this thread.

The first place I saw the washer system called that was in the Accessories section of the factory shop manual. Yet, it wasn't until some ten years later, when I disassembled a rusty old pump & cover from a parts car to repair the one on my first Patrician (which had half of its innards missing), that I understood the function behind the name.

Though I was expecting some sort of little motor, it is a little electric solenoid that merely opens a vacuum passage. The resulting pressure differential retracts a spring-loaded plunger inside the jar to load a plastic chamber with washer fluid - much like a syringe. When the vacuum source is cut-off, the return spring pushes the plunger down, and fluid is forced out the washer nozzles.

However, I've never been quite sure about the function of the other plastic "block" on the jar cover. Upon finding some little rubber flaps (valves?) inside one that I disassembled, I was reminded of repair kits for 60s/70s-era Trico pumps on full-size GM cars that dispensed the washer fluid in a pulsed stream, but I've only seen a steady stream from the two systems that I've had working on Packard V8s.