On 11/1/06, Mike Bucchino <mbucchino@charter.net> wrote:
>   US VW's from 1962 to 1979, used a hose connected to the spare tire's valve
> stem to pressurise the top of the windshield washer bottle.
> This, instead of an electric pump to do the job. It conveyed the pressurized
> washer fluid from the bottom of the fluid reservoir (mounted to the spare
> tire rim), through the wiper switch (on the earlier dash or the later
> steering column), hen to the squirter nozzles.  IE; lots of hose and places
> to leak!

On my '74 bus the washer fluid reservoir itself was pressurized via a
hose with a standard  tire valve stem that you could add air to.
Nothing was connected to the spare tire. It was a crappy system that
never worked and I ended up adding an electric pump which didn't
really work well either. Coupled with almost no defrosting it was
interesting to drive in icy weather. I often had to use an ice scraper
on the inside of the windshield.

-Mark