When I traveled down to Austin to get the canoe, I accumulated a lot of bugs on the windshield. Trying to work the windshield washer I found it to not be working, and just dealt with the bugs collecting.
When I got home I filled up the washer reservoir and found it still not working. I followed the hoses and they went around to the drivers side where there's an electric valve. I pulled the hose out of the valve on the pump side and fluid would flow, but when I pulled the hose out of the exit of the valve, nothing came out.
I did a search on the ih8mud forum and found that this is the diverter valve that determines based on your button presses, whether the fluid goes to the windshield or the rear window. Seems that these crud up on the inside after a while and aren't worth trying to repair and should just be replaced. Some folks will just replace them with a T fitting and just let the fluid flow to both. I looked up the part number and found a brand new one on ebay for $40 and ordered it up. Got the new one in and all swapped out.
Checking the system again I now had flow out of the valve, however no flow out of the nozzles. I do have fluid raining out of the bottom of the truck though. I broke the clips holding the insulating blanket on the hood, which apparently is common procedure because you have a better chance of winning the lottery than to pop those out without breaking them. Looking behind the old crumbling blanket, I find the hoses aren't connected to the nozzles.
I connect them back up and test and the hoses pop back off again. Seems that the nozzles are so clogged they pop off the hoses when I try to use them. I got the nozzles out, used a safety pin to clean the exit holes from the nozzles and then dropped them in an ultrasonic bath of hot water and dish detergent. They came out looking almost brand new.
Got them popped back in and they work great. The little nozzles are ball valves so you can adjust them. During my cleaning they got moved around and two were spraying the hood right in front of them so I realigned them. It's fiddly to get them aligned but I ended up with an odd looking but very effective spray pattern. All good now, ready for Texas bug season.
