windshield washer won't work

The first thing to do is find out if it's the motor or the tubing. Often times the tubing gets old and brittle, and breaks off. It could even be pinched. Have someone push the switch for the washer and listen for the motor. If you hear it, then look for where the washer fluid is going.

If it's the motor that's not working, you can test two ways. Put a volt meter on the leads and push the switch for the fluid. If you have voltage, then the problem is the motor. You could also send 12vdc directly to the motor and see if it works.

Either way, if the motor's ok, then you need to look at either a fuse or the washer switch itself. I guess it could even be a wiring problem.

CJB

i live in upstate NY and 99% of the time if something electrical stops working, it's a bad ground. Run a jumper wire from the pump motor to a good ground first. I had a wiper motor quit on a car last year and I frigged around for an hour taking it all apart,... the ground was shitty. Good luck,

wall

============================================================== Check the w/w fluid---maybe you're out, or it's frozen. Do you hear the pump running when you actuate it ???

RON ======================================================== Remove the ZZZ from my E-mail address to send me E-mail.

Another common complaint (believe it or not) is how fast are you going when the thing acts funny. At high speed, the wind will throw the WWF all over instead of where you think you want it to be. (According to my dealer, a lot of folks don't realize this. Hmmmm.)

H.

I've spritzed my windshield at all kinds of speeds with no problem. Didn't matter which vehicle I was in... Did it at 85MPH on I10 last week coming back from Arizona... Worked as anticipated.

There are a few vehicles that I've had that developed enough wind turbulence at hwy speeds that the windshield washer spray would mostly miss the windshield. IIRC, a couple of older Ford full size vans were like that, and maybe my old full size GMC van too.

Bug shields will seriously mess up the airflow across a windshield tho.

CJB

I'm in Australia and have one of the last F150s assembled here in 1989. I had the same problem as Derek and found that the plastic impeller had sheared off from the washer motor. So I took it to the local Ford spares mob (not the Ford agent). He found a similar pump from God-knows-what and transferred the impeller to my pump. Charged me about $A20 - what the motor from which the impellor came was worth). Did the trick.

My F150 is still going strong and is my favourite vehicle.