Guys,
Spent the past couple of hours in the garage working on the clutch master
cylinder. I believe my problem had to do with the little one-way valve. The
distance piece the seal fits inside is made of plastic in this unit and
there didn't seem to be much room for the seal to move away from the hole
(when you release the clutch). The new seal might be a tad fatter than
others I have as well. But to be thorough, although very unscientific about
it, I decided to do everything I could think of that might help. I chucked
the piston in a drill press and polished the hell out of it with #600 grit
wet-or-dry and WD-40 until it was nice and shiny. Without the main seal on
it, I tested it in the bore. No discernible play, but it dropped in and out
with no resistance. Then, thinking the spring might need to be a bit
stiffer, I removed it and stretched it a bit. But, while reassembling the
spring and check valve assembly, the thing got loose on me and shot across
the garage and into the most obscure place possible. Ohhhh craaaap!! Found
everything but the little plastic distance piece. Ohhhh double craaaap!!
Back to the parts box to look for another and I find a complete Alpine
master cylinder. It's 3/4" instead of 5/8", but the part I'm looking for is
the same. Well, almost the same. In this case the distance piece is metal
and there's noticeably more clearance for the seal. Plus, this spring looks
a lot beefier than the one I'd been working with. So, I take the whole
spring and check valve assembly off the Alpine cylinder, clean it, and
attach it to the 5/8" Tiger piston (being damn careful not to launch this
one). Assemble with plenty of red grease and put it back in the car.
I haven't driven it yet, but I'm pretty confident it's going to work OK
now, heat or no heat. But, we'll see. I did note how close the hydraulic
line goes to #8 header pipe; about 2" at closest approach. Although I don't
think this has been the problem, it wouldn't hurt to put some insulation
around the hydraulic line in that area. I'm also going to bend up some
stainless sheet metal to make a heat shield to protect the slave cylinder,
which sits just over the collector section of the header. Probably spot
weld the sheet metal to a hose clamp and clamp it to the slave cylinder.
I'll get to those things tomorrow.
Well, TTFN guys,
Bob
Robert L. Palmer
UCSD, Dept. of AMES
619-822-1037 (o)
760-599-9927 (h)
rpalmer@ucsd.edu
rpalmer@cts.com
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