Forward visibility
For a boat with a wheelhouse, a screen washer is a small but important accessory. David Parker shows how to fit a new pump
A step-by-step guide to fitting a windscreen washer pump
Spares for an engine water pump, namely an impeller, are one of those ‘must have items’ most boat owners would probably label as essential. Also when it comes to general electric bilge pumps, many craft will also typically have manual options as a backup should there be a problem. However there’s one little pump on board which can get overlooked by motor boat owners or in fact anyone with a wheelhouse steering position.
I’m talking about the windscreen washer pump. It’s one of those minor things you take for granted but as soon as it packs up you miss it pretty quickly. It happened to me on a choppy day when it wasn’t raining but there was lots of wind-driven spray. It was the sort of conditions where you need the wipers and screen washer on a stop-start basis to keep the blades lubricated. Soon I had salty smears all over the glass and this going into bright sun and more spray soon restricts a clear field of vision. The
pump had been working fine in the short bursts required but then just stopped without notice. I could hear it working but no water was coming out and cursory checks afloat didn’t cure it. It wasn’t like when a wiper motor completely packs up. Then you rapidly lose visibility in an unnerving watery blur, but the faulty pump was certainly a problem which needed sorting before going out again.
Investigations began when I got back to my mooring. I must confess that I didn’t even know where this little pump was but fortunately I could still hear it whirring when activated so tracked down the noise and located it tucked up inside a system locker by the wheel console.
It was no bigger than the washer pump used in a car: in fact that’s exactly what it was and I got a similar replacement for under a tenner from a motor factor outlet.
Replacing it was not a difficult job and it works on the same simple principle as when installing any other pump on board. It has an inlet for a feed supply and an outlet where the pumped water comes via a built-in 12V motor with standard positive and negative terminal feeds.
But of course when is anything exactly that straightforward on a boat?
This was a system which had probably been in place since the boat was built and inevitably there were some modifications with adapters required and key things to remember such as fitting a non-return valve and being able to isolate relevant parts of the water supply.
While I was doing the job I also took the opportunity to replace the water filter between the tank and the feed pipes, a job which was probably long overdue.
I also considered changing the washer supply system itself with a stand alone windscreen washer kit which is maybe worth considering in the future or if you come to do a similar job.
These kits consist of a separate tank with a pump, some of which are built in, and the other accessories such as the tubing and connectors.
My supply is fed off the main water tank and I decided to stick with this for now for both speed and convenience – and it was cheaper. Here’s how I did it.
‘A key part of the system is the nonreturn valve’