laneskelton

Is there any how to articles on replacing the internals for the clutch master cylinder? I just got the parts, because mine is seeping a little fluid. Thanks in advance.

Jim M.

Clutch master cylinder has a piston inside with a rubber cup seal on it. As the cup seal wears, it allows fluid to get past, and then you have fluid behind the piston where the pushrod is. The boot on the back will do its best for a while, but eventually the fluid leaks out, soaking the carpet (most common symptom) and wetting the mechanism. The pedal mechanism pulls the boot off the back of the cylinder, go in there with snap-ring pliers to release the piston out of the rear of the cylinder. This is all done from the driver's foot well area. When you pull the piston out, you'll get some fluid following it. Suck out the fluid from the reservoir before you pull the piston to minimize the amount you'll have to manage after the piston is pulled out. Once out, you'll make a decision to replace the whole thing based on corrosion you see in the cylinder bore. If it's not bad and isn't scored (shouldn't be with aluminum piston in the steel casting), continue the repair from the foot well area. Otherwise, the cylinder is behind/below the brake booster in the engine bay. Replace the blue hose that supplies fluid to the cylinder, and replace or rebuild the line from the clutch master down to the slave cylinder. A hydraulic hose rebuilder will do this for you, netting a hose that may be a bit better/more durable than a replacement. Fresh fluid, a whole brake and clutch system bleed and flush with the power bleeder, and you'll be good to go.

Jim Mayzurk
93 GTS 5-spd

Mrmerlin

well if you disassemble the clutch master and find any pits in the bore then you should without question replace the master, trying to rehone the bore is only a stop gap at best , since the master is leaking you should also consider to replace the slave and since the system is going to be opened up you should attach the new blue hose onto the clutch master befor fitting it into its position then once the lines are fitted attach the new blue hose to the bottom of your freshly washed resivour, Oh to wash your resivour remove it by tilting it side to side as you lift it will pull out have a rag handy to catch any fluid, rinse the resivour with some brake clean, then use simple green then flush with water do this a few times with the simple green till the res looks like new then shake out as much water as possible then refill the res with Isopropil alcohol shake it then rinse it a few more times (this removes all of the water that was used to rinse out the simple green)then use a hair drier and let it blow into the res on warm setting

laneskelton

Thanks guys,
I took the slave apart to find that the spring was broken in half as well. Everything looked good, so I replaced the seals, and the spring and put it back together. I used gravity to bleed it and it worked well. The clutch feels way better and it's dry. Don't know what I would do without this list.