Windscreen washers - 1985 V8 County

[Carslil Jim]

It must be obvious I am very new to LRs. Mine has 30mm or so circular black plastic mounts for the washer jets under (in front of) the windscreen. How do these come off? My jets are fouled and I need to give them a good clean.

[rar110]

The later windscreen sprayer is in the middle of the firewall. It is held in place by a plastic nut on the inside of the firewall. I can't remember exactly what you would need to remove to get it out but I think you would need to take the top of the dash off.

I would say the earlier version with two sprayers on the fire wall would be held in a similar way.

As it will take a while I would first try cleaning the outside with turps or white spirits, or maybe hook the sprayer up to the garden hose to give it a bit of a clean out with a bit more pressure. Too much pressure and the hose will probably pop off the back of the sprayer and you will have to take the top of the dash off to hook it up again.

[dobbo]

I thought they were strictly ornamental or painted on.

[Freestyler]

They are heald on by a plastic nut on the inside. If yours has factory air the dashboard can be a pain until you find all the screws. Once you find them all they come appart OK. Be carefull of all the vacuum tubes they can be brittle. It is possible to make all the bits work very well on a county. They also don't leak oil if you are prepared to spend a bit of time. Any one who argues can get under my 85 county. It has a few weeps around drain plugs but no drops on the concrete and no spray on the rest of the underside or the following trailer. And they are a great bush truck. I'm rebuiling another 85 county as an outright bush truck.
Tim

[Carslil Jim]

Bit off the subject, but mine is not an oil dripper either. My 'other" car is an old Jaguar...infamous for loosing oil, but I have it under control too. Its a matter of maintaing gaskets etc. My County has been neglected and I am new to LRs, so I appreciate you picking up on this subject. I am finding all sorts of mysterious things to make operational.

Until I get it to the point where I can sneak a drive around the block I can't find out what the gearbox is like, so that is my biggest worry.

The washers will have to work for the blue slip so I have to get them sorted sooner or later.

Anyway, eneough said re the washers I should be able to sort them out now.

Thanks again.

[Freestyler]

Has yours got the 4 speed or 5 speed box? Your biggest problem would be if someone has run ATF in the box.

[Albert]

I usually use a pin or needle to clean them out, has worked so far

[Carslil Jim]

Freestyler,
Its a 5 speed box. When I asked the previous owner if the diffs whined, he said "No, but it makes a different noise when you engage 5th gear". I am not sure what that is going to mean. We shall see!

[Freestyler]

If it makes a different noise in 5th, I would check the circlip on the end of the main shaft. I had one of these break and cost me aprox $800 plus the time to fix it. You can check it in the vehicle easy enough. There is also a large nut holding 5th gear to the layshaft which may have come loose but I suspect you would have a similar noise in 1st, although the shaft rotaion would be alot slower.
Tim

[LandieMan]

The older window washers you describe can be seperated from their mounting from the outside of the vehicle without having the dismantle the dash to get to the nuts behind (as described above). The window washer is actually in 2 parts, the inner part bolts to the fire wall, the outer part (which includes the jets) clips over the top.

HOWEVER, to seperate them is a bit of a job and you do risk "snapping" the thing off in the process if the plastic has gone brittle. As described above I would exhaust every option to soak the thing to see if you can clear the jet. I would only seek to seperate the outer part as a "second" to last resort. The last resort would be to dismantle the dash.

The outer can be seperated by "bending" the washer stork while twisting screw driver in the gap created at the base of the stork. The gap will appear at the base of the circular part of the washer itself, not between the washer and the fire wall. Bend it only to create the gap, once the screw driver's under it you should be able to unclip it by forcing it off along it's axis.

I successfully unclipped the outer piece from a spare washer I had so I could replace the one on the truck that had split and fallen off. It saved me having to get behind the dash.

Good luck.

Cheers, Landieman