May I make a contribution to this problem? While I don't remember the
dates in question, it's worth mentioning that it was probably in the
very early 1960's that the fitting of windscreen washers was mandatory
in the UK - regardless of whether a car was for export or not. This is
fairly typical of the prevailing view among many UK auto manufacturers
at the time that certain 'accessories' would not be production fitted
unless this was a more or less global requirement. Thus the
responsibility to fit such items in markets where they were a legal
requirement, fell on the supplying dealer or importer. For a certain
fact, my 1961 Mk 1 Sprite didn't have washers of any sort as OE so I
can only conclude the law had not been passed at the time of that
frogeye's build. Admittedly, some manufacturers (e.g Jaguar, Aston,
Bristol, Roly Poly) may have fitted such equipment before it became
law but this would have been either more oriented towards 'value
added' than legal requirement OR offered as a post line fit optional
extra. In the
case of later sidescreen TR's, it may well have been an option, but
like overdrives, we know that many US and other market export cars
never had an overdrive offered. This is because many dealer salesmen
were either unaware of their availability or what they did.
Because of that, it is entirely logical that many cars escaped the net
FWIW, the 1959 Gaydon owned TR3A I drove earlier this year was also
fitted with 'period suck and hope' washers rather than electric
versions. The equipment on that car is by 'Tudor' (I think) and the
plunger is in a simple angle bracket on the curve on lower side of the
instrument panel between glovebox and auxiliary instruments.
Remember this is a RH steer car so opposite location for a
cack-hander.
The fitting of the manual pump or push button switch, would probably
have been very much at the dealer's discretion and while I've seen
other sidescreen TR's with a plunger pump somewhere in the general
area of the overdrive switch, it is not necessarily safe to assume
this is the *only* location for a pump or switch, nor that it's
location "was laid down by the factory." In washer kits supplied to
dealers under a Stanpart number, there would have been a fitting
diagram in which suitable locations would have been indicated for all
cars produced by the company at the time. The science of ergonomics
was still much in its infancy in those days - maybe it was still a
foetus?
Jonmac
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