6/20/07

I seem to remember leaving off right before I was about to install the hydraulics on George. Did I tell you about the clutch slave cylinder? Hang on I need to go check. Ok, I had not told that part of the story yet. So, I grab the clutch slave and a few bolts then mounted it to the side of the bell housing. I then made an attempt to install the male-to-male union thingy, which was actually a hard line from a brake caliper bent into a convenient shape. It wouldn’t thread in far enough for the pipe to bottom out on the sealing cone inside the fitting. I though it odd. I removed the slave cylinder to have a look. It had no sealing cone inside the fitting. This fitting was designed to seal with a crush washer. I pulled a good, I hope, hose off of the rear brake splitter thingy attached to a spare axle and installed it in the slave. I decided at that point that I wasn’t going to attempt to replace the rear brake line on George unless it is absolutely shot. On the plus side, I now have stainless steel brake lines for Barbara. Anyhoo, I remount the slave cylinder and have a look at attaching the hose to the hard line from the master cylinder. I bend the hard line into a loop so that the hose mates in a good spot away from the road and tighten them up. I think I zip tied the assembly to something but I may not have. I also don’t remember if I tightened the bolts holding the slave cylinder on. I need to check that. With that end of the clutch system done, I moved on to replacing the masters. I remove the clutch master and set it aside. It comes off with little fuss. The brake master was not a similar situation. I tried to loosen the fittings on the bottom of the master with a 10 mm flare wrench but just rounded off the corners. Yes, a flare wrench will round off the corners if the fittings are as tight as these were. I grabbed a pair of vice-grips and finally broke the front fitting loose. I didn’t have enough room to move the pliers but about 1/16^th of a turn each time. It was frustrating to say the least. I looked at removing the lines from the proportioning valve but the turbo inlet pipe was in the way. I didn’t want to take that many steps backward. I pressed on. Finally I was pissed off and frustrated enough that I removed the master cylinder with the hard lines attached and bent them up so I could get to them. I finally got the front fitting and line off. I tried the rear fitting with a flare wrench. See above about rounding the corners with a flare wrench. I clamped on the vice-grips and strained to break the seal. It finally snapped loose and I threaded the master off of the line. No, I didn’t thread the line out of the master cylinder; I spun the master cylinder off of the line. As an aside, the removal of the pins on the pedals was not too much of a pain, all things considered. After tossing the old master cylinder against the wall (ok, throwing might be a better description), I grabbed the new one. I threaded the hard lines on and tightened them down then bent them back into place to align the master cylinder to the firewall. It bolted down and I was pleased. The clutch master went on just as easily as did its line. I stood back to have a look and then thought I'd better hook up the pedals and finish the job. The brake plunger yoke fell right onto the pedal so all I had to do was insert the pin and snap in the retaining clip. The clutch was not a similar situation. I missed with the yoke, not to mention the adjuster was way too long. I loosened it and threaded it all the way in to see if it would pop into place. It didn’t. I tried to compress the clutch to see if I could get the yoke past the pedal but the plunger wouldn’t move. “What the fuck?” I yelled. I climbed out and removed the master cylinder from the car again. Fortunately it comes out much easier than the brake master. I checked the length of the plunger yoke against the old master and saw it was way too long. I took them both to the vice to change them out. I got the stock plunger out and set the old master aside. I got the new plunger out and tried to push the piston in. No luck. I tapped it with a hammer and extension. It moved. It moved in but didn’t return. It was stuck. I messed with it for a while but finally got so pissed off I beat the crap out of it with a hammer. It was still stuck. I cut the motherfucker in half with a hacksaw and it was still stuck. I drilled a hole in the end and beat the thing out with a pin punch. The cups and seals were crusted with a gritty light tan colored schmutz. I removed the new reservoir and set it aside then threw the broke-assed piece of shit master cylinder in the trash. I took the old master cylinder apart and cleaned it up then reassembled it. I put the new reservoir on and installed it on the car. I missed again with the plunger yoke. This time however, I was able to get it in place by removing the pedal stop. I reinstalled the pin and clip then the pedal stop. At this point I was so hot, tired, and pissed off with the project that I cleaned up and went home. Well, the supermodel needs me and I'm at a good stopping point so I think I'll call this rant complete. Have a day.