For the past few years my windshield washer pump would stop working. I found that I could wiggle the wires going to the washer pump and it would work for a while. Well, about a month ago the pump stopped working, no matter how hard I wiggled the wires. I figured that there was a bad connection in the harness because I had lengthened the harness when I relocated the washer/overflow tank. I put new connectors and shrink tubing on the harness, but the pump still would not work. Now I am getting nervous because the only other component that could be faulty (other than a wiring problem) is the wiper switch, and I really didn't feel like taking the dash apart, plus that switch would be expensive. I put power directly to the pump and it worked, so I put a test light on the washer pump pigtail and I got power when I pressed the washer pump switch. At this point I figured that it had to be a bad connection between the washer pump motor and the pigtail, so I rigged up some single connectors to go on to the washer pump, and it worked just fine. Turns out that the connectors inside the pigtail were extremely corroded. The next day I called my local Ford dealer to hear, ".....sorry, we don't carry that part. Maybe try a parts store." I figured I was in for a tough find, but I looked through a couple of my catalogues and found that Pico made the pigtail, part #5721E ($8.00 CDN). I crimped the wires together and put shrink tubing on each one and the washer pump works like new. Nice to have a simple fix for a change.

Last updated on April 7/2002