Moving Windshield washer Tank

[RRoller123]

For a bunch of reasons, I decided to move my WW Tank to under the cowl, like on the late model Spiders. Leaves the engine compartment less crowded on the Intake side, etc.

Used a good tank with new pump procured from a forum member, secured it with a modified Simpson "Strong Tie" Galvanized fastener.

Applied another coat of rattle can spray-on Undercoating to the whole under cowl area, including the fastener.

Marked out and cut access hole in cowl with a metal bit in my jig saw. Lined hole with 5/16 slit hose.

Only thing I don't like is having to carve up the original olio Fiat sticker, but hey that's the way it goes.

[spider2081]

Great job Those tanks are pretty rare. Would love to find an alternative tank to mount in a similar fashion that is more available.

[RRoller123]

Hey thanks. I have a lot of fun just continuously puttering around with this thing!

One oddity, that you can see in the 3rd and 6th pics down, is that the hold-down screw for the cowl is placed directly above the grommet pass through, (2 locations, on both sides of the car!) so a short screw has to be used in both locations or trouble will rear its ugly head. Surprising that they would have placed the hold downs there. Very odd.

[wizard124]

Gutsy move!

Just wondering? Is the pump mounted to the bottle or separate? Did you splice the original wiring and extend it back to the cowl?

[Ptoneill]

Looks great!!

[v6spider]

That's where I'm going to put mine!

Rob

[RRoller123]

Wizard: The pump is mounted to the tank and sits in the slight recess on the bottom in front of where the cowl drain hole is. The total clearance for this assembly between cowl and tank top is maybe 1/16" when all is reassembled. Fits surprisingly well. Since I never use the WW, this is all just in the interests of completeness (I can't say "show" when referring to anything on this car). I considered putting a thin piece of easily compressible weatherstrip foam across the top of the tank, so it would be slightly compressed and thus held down by the cowl when re-installed, but it doesn't seem necessary. If I find that it rattles a bit, I will add it.

The original connector fits to the new tank, and reaches perfectly, so there was no wiring to do at all other than to run the wiring through the sidewall wire bundle clips. The wiring on the new tank is maybe 3 feet long or so? Seems that they intended it to be wired this way, because it fits too well to be a coincidence.

Pete

[weengra]

Nice work. I went crazy trying to figure out how to upgrade to old school air horns in my 1982 Spider. I bought a late Spider cowl and washer bottle from Canadan, figuring I'd delete the original and put the airhorn compressor there, and move the washer bottle to the cowl. I ended up not doing it and installed one of those excellent miniature airhorns and compressors from Griots Garage behind the grill where the electric horns hung.
The later cowl (IIRC) just has a round hole, not keyhole shaped.
Also, reproduction oil stickers are available from the vendors and look pretty good. I think I got mine from Obert.

[RRoller123]

I thought about adding the repro oil sticker, but I guess I think it best to just leave the original one there. I think it would be a little odd to add a second one on the cowl w/o removing the original, so it stays as is. If I take off the original oil sticker, the respray around it would make it look obvious that a sticker was removed.

[Ramzi]

Excellent installation.

I was planning on doing the same on my '72 but the floor vents are in the way. I may have to bring the car to you!


R

[RRoller123]

Thanks, Ramzi, but I am a rank amateur!

[DieselSpider]

I started looking for a space to mount a universal washer kit on mine just before this was posted and found that there is little real estate available to put one since the OEM location is taken up by the glow plug relay for the diesel. Turbo Charger plumbing on the drivers side takes up most available space there and heat from the Turbo could cause the washer fluid to evaporate very quickly anyway.

Other locations contain relays for fuel valve/starter, diesel lift pump, diesel fuel filter with water trap and remote oil filter.

This give me a new direction to consider. The Spider is my daily driver and on a foggy or humid morning a washer to lube the wipers and provide fluid that will help diminish the effect of morning dew/fog would be great.

[RRoller123]

So a final update: The slit fuel line that I used as an edging on the sharp edges of the cut out is too thick and puts a little upwards pressure on the hood. It keeps popping open when I drive. Tried adjusting the position of the latch but that didn't help, so off came the edging and the problem is solved. It is very tight under there, not much room for stuff like this. So next I will get some really small diameter hose and see if that works.

Pete

[DieselSpider]

So a final update: The slit fuel line that I used as an edging on the sharp edges of the cut out is too thick and puts a little upwards pressure on the hood. It keeps popping open when I drive. Tried adjusting the position of the latch but that didn't help, so off came the edging and the problem is solved. It is very tight under there, not much room for stuff like this. So next I will get some really small diameter hose and see if that works.

Pete

Almost looks like a flange tool needs to be run around the section of the hole that's on the raised portion of the cowl.

http://www.harborfreight.com/air-punch- ... -1110.html

[RRoller123]

that might do it.