Washer pump not working

[marcel]

I don't drive my car in the rain if I can help it, but I was trying to wash pollen dust off the windshield, but the washer pump doesn't work. I filled up the resevoir to overflowing. I looked under the front end and the bucket appears to have been removed or damaged before. I was only able to remove one bolt, and the ones that are still there just turn. Do these have rivnuts on the other end. What's the best way to get to the washer pump?

[David T]

I don't drive my car in the rain if I can help it, but I was trying to wash pollen dust off the windshield, but the washer pump doesn't work. I filled up the resevoir to overflowing. I looked under the front end and the bucket appears to have been removed or damaged before. I was only able to remove one bolt, and the ones that are still there just turn. Do these have rivnuts on the other end. What's the best way to get to the washer pump?

You have to grind the heads off the bolts that will not come out and replace the rivnuts. Very common for the bolts to get rusty and when you try to remove them they bind up on the rust and spin the rivnuts in the fiberglass.

[DMC5180]

In addition to grinding the heads off, you can also drill the head off. The bolts are M5's. You start with a 3/32 drill to start a centering hole to a depth of about 1/8 th inch then follow up with a 5/32 drill bit . The drill bit is larger than the 5MM and will pop the head as you drill deeper. Once you have all the troublemakers drilled or ground off and the bucket removed, you will be able to drop the plastic bottle out. With the bottle removed you will be able to grip the rivnut with a small vise-grip from the top side. You might be able to grip the stem of threads sticking out of the rivnut and unscrew it. If that does not work you will need to grind the rest of the protruding material off until the rivnut can be removed from the inside.

[outatym2001]

To make access easier to the Washer Bottle I started by removing the left front Wheel.
Marcel I too had several bolts spin in place and had a tough time cutting off the bolt heads with my Dremel tool and Fiberglass Reinforced Cutting Wheel item 426. While cutting or drilling a lot of heat is generated and you don’t want to melt the black plastic Tub.
After removing the Tub you still need to gently cut off the remaining messed up Rivet Nuts and be careful not to cut into the fiberglass body of the car.
Here is a web page with new Rivet Nuts and Rivet Nut insert tool.
http://specialtauto.com/delorean-parts/hardware.html

It’s possible you may not even have a Washer Pump. In the picture attached I found out some idiot previous owner had removed the Washer Pump and glued the washer fluid tubing to the bottom of the Washer Bottle. The tubing in my DeLorean was very rigid and old and I had to use a Heat Gun to soften the tubing in order to attach it to the new Washer Pump.
I would also suggest drilling several holes in the bottom of the black plastic Tub to prevent water and dirt from collecting inside the Tub. If dirty water sprayed from the left front Wheel is allowed to collect in the Tub it will rust your new Washer Pump.
To further prevent dirty water from entering the Tub try some RTV silicone or McKanica Seam Sealer Black and apply on the top edge of the Tub just before reinstalling.