I'm only human.
I've been ogling over these super-human restoration projects that @spriso, @funkaholic, @pjackb, and others are sharing.
And just for contrast I thought it might be a good idea to showcase something a mere mortal wastes waaaaaay too much time messing with.
Behold my washer bag project —
A dirty bag with a dirty rusted pump.
I first dismantled the pump, and it was not pretty. Should have done some online searches right then and there, because you can get a replacement for far few dollars less than the number of hours I spent on this project.
But at the time, I was searching for something to do on the car, and I'm stubborn and determined if nothing else, so I kept after it.
Before I went crazy on it, I posted the question of how to test the washer bag pump safely.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34996
@nissanman was a huge help. I first learned everything there is to know about electricity, and then cobbled together some Rube Goldberg looking connections using the parts @nissanman recommended, some wires, electrical tape, alligator clips, and an old charger - which I immediately fried…¦
So I found another charger and was able to consistently get the right voltage.
I put power to the leads and at first —nothing. Cleaned it some more. Supply power - and, whoah - did that thing budge? More cleaning (I bought 2 electrical cleaning sprays).
Power. It turned! Then stopped. And it went on like that. Turn, stop, etc. Not at all consistent, but it did show signs of life.
I figured this thing was good to go, so I cleaned it all up the best I could, and actually got the thing to be able to turn okay, but it was still pretty darn 'sticky'.
Then sometime during all the connecting and disconnecting, and trying not to shock myself a second time, I snapped off one of the tabs that feeds the power through the plastic housing to the brushes. Aaargh.
So, I went and bought a soldering kit. I am so dumb.
Anyway, I actually successfully melted the broken tab into the plastic and soldered an ugly, but operable connection!
I was so excited, I cracked a Foster Beer to honor our Aussie friend @nissanman! By the way, the green Fosters is a lot better than the blue - I didn't even know it existed until this.
Powered it up again. Meh. It would still turn, but I actually had to give it a 'jump start' by twisting the spindle to get it going. Then it would just die.
I finally admitted to myself that the bushing/bearing thing the spindle goes through to drive the water pusher was just so corroded it was all gummed up. And that's irreparable. This thing's a goner.
That's when I looked on eBay and found one for $20. Keep in mind I've already spent much more than that, not to mention the time.
The eBay one had one broken outlet/inlet tube. But, so did my original… and they might just marry up. I was assured the motor was strong, so I went for it thinking that I'll get one good pump out of the two.
Sure enough, the pump came, it hummed like a champ. So, I took the nicest screws, the gasket, and water pusher from my old one and put that on the new one.
Then the real gory stuff happened.
I had to do a transplant of the good water tube from my old one to the new one.
I assembled a crack team of surgeons (me) and proceeded to amputate and extract the good water tube from the old pump.
I put that on ice while I prepped the recipient.
I then amputated the stump of a water tube from the new one.
I Dremeled a cone-shaped hole into the new pump and then shaped the donor tube to fit the cone hole. Gorilla glue. And Voila!
A successful and colossal waste of time.
And now, I will put it in the little pouch in the water pouch and no one will ever see it.
Brilliant use of time.
Oh, and I cleaned up the bag. It came pretty clean. Soap and water and one of those Magic Erasers did the trick.
Next up - similarly incremental time suck progress.
