Wipers
The following mod is courtesy of Guy Springett (Geobloke) and Pete Holme (Pete H), and was originally detailed on the Land Rover UK Forums.
Installation
I don't know about the rest of you but I think the washer jets found on the Defender (and series) are absolutely useless. Either the water gets caught in an up-draft and taken up over the roof or they drill holes in to a couple of points on the windscreen. Either way they are awful!
A mate and I were talking about this one day when we had the idea that would it be possible to rig up different washers or more washers on to the Defender. What I originally thought was to put a second defender washer jet in one of the blanking plugs on the bulkhead, but after I bought the jet I realised that there was not enough room to fit it. So back to the drawing board!
I was riding in another mates Peugeot 405 one day and noticed that his washers were on his wiper blades and delivered 3 jets of water to each wiper. It worked brilliantly and there was the answer!
So I called up this other mate and as if by telepathy he had had the same idea too. So we got a load of irrigation tubing connectors and some irrigation tubing and after a bit of playing around this is the end result. On each of Eva's wiper blades is a washer jet that squirts out 3 jets of water straight on to each side of the windscreen.
A vast improvement just doesn't do this justice. It has revolutionised driving, actually being able to wash the windscreen effectively. Plus it doesn't use up any more fluid than normal because you don't need to keep your finger on the button half as long as with the standard washer jet.
The installation is really simple too.
I have been using these wiper mounted jets for almost 5 months now and I can say that if there is one mod you should definitely do over any of your performance or tarty upgrades it is this. It makes driving so much safer and is kinda novel being able to see the road!
The old washer jet is still there but is not used anymore.
The washer it self.
From the local scrap yard, I got 4 off them of a Peugeot 405. (We
believe the same washers were also fitted to the 605).
To get the tubing from the little hole above the vent to the
centre ash tray, I used wire to make the job easier...
With the wire in place, i.e. from the hole above the vent to
the centre ash tray, I next attached the washer tubing, and
pulled the wire though the hole and this brings the washer
tubing to the ash tray area...
The washer tubing is cable tied to wiper arm, note there is plenty of slack in the tube..
Cable tie the washer to the wiper blade arm and then attach washer tube to the
washer its self...
A close up of the connections in the dash and the non return valves I put in. You will see
the original clear tubing going in to the T-piece and then the black
tubing coming out and in to two non-return valves, and then these go on to
travel through the dash and out through the bulkhead to the wiper blades.
You don't have to be as pedantic as me and use non-return valves.
I would advise the cable tying of the tube unions though.
Bulkheads rot quickly enough without adding more water in to them!!
??mm grommets, from Halfords, were used where the washer tubing comes through
the bulkhead.
The finished wipers on Guy's Defender.
The wiper working.
The three arched lines on the windscreen are what the washer
jets leave behind! Then of course the wiper moves back over
the water clearing and cleaning the screen.
Update: The washer has 5 jets on it although I have blocked the end one (far end of the washer) up to increase the pressure on the other four (which are along the length of the washer). The reason is that the end jet is a straight through route from the inlet so the water comes out that one more than the rest! A dab of super glue or melt with a soldering iron closes it up nicely - result is 4 good strong jets on each wiper blade. The other thing is that you don't use any more washer fluid because 100% of what you do squirt reaches the screen whereas the LR dual jet tends not to!!
Guy Springett / Pete Holme
April 2005
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