Lucky's Series 3

[Lucky]

Yeah, but mine's a rust-free battery tray now

[codge]

Just done an edit.....crossed with your post.

'Nother edit....why aren't you at work?

[Lucky]

Now you're just getting silly... Conrad, waste a sweet!? Never!

Work later, thanks for the reminder lol. I'll be driving a 12-car 377-class from Brighton to Bedford if anyone cares? I'd give you the running time but just in case there are any terrorists reading maybe better not

[RX7SA]

Sorry to hear of your troubles with the floods mate, hope thats it for the foreseeable future.
Nice work with the battery tray though.

[Lucky]

Some progress!

Finally got a day when IT DIDN'T RAIN Not once! No, really ...

Since it was dry and given the notoriously hydroscopic properties of brake fluid (is that the right word, any chemists out there in the audience? ) errrr... it soaks up moisture and degrades... it seemed a good time to sort out my leaky clutch slave cylinder.

I'd scored a spare from Ramon's obsolete clutch slave cylinder mountain so that was good. It did look slightly different, but the holes looked in the right place so hopefully that'd be all that mattered. After all, the Haynes says it's as straightforward as undoing two bolts and swapping the flexi-hose over, then bleeding. So what was the worst that could happen

The original did look a nasty bloody thing. It had been weeping fluid from the pushrod for ages but the weep was becoming a flood so long past time it was done.


^that, for anyone who doesn't know (no-one, then) is the clutch slave in situ. It was weird, having finally cracked the bolts off (they really didn't want to shift) it was obvious someone's had the slave off before because they were rounded and mullered. The hose (mmmm, hose) fitting was untouched though, which was odd. Maybe they swapped the seal over while it was still attached or something Don't think the engine's been to bits or owt. Dunno. Weird.

Anyway, any hopes I'd had of refurbishing the old one with a seal kit and keeping it as a spare were pretty much squashed as soon as it came off



Euwwwwww! It seems to be full of a nice grinding paste made from a mixture of brake fluid and shrapnel ground away from the inside of the bore. At least, I can't imagine where else all the metallic swarf would have come from. Bin!

You can see the two slaves are slightly different in orientation, the new one (on the right) has a more upright mount for the bleed nipple, which is also taller, and the union where the flexi-hose attatches is more protruding too. This was actually a good thing, as the recessed one on the original made it rather a PITA to get good enough purchase with a spanner to actually crack the hose fitting off



Close-up to show the point... would this prove a problem? Would it now not fit in the rather nadgery space amongst the fuel lines, loom, coolant hoses for the beehive, etc? (the Haynes is from a non-beehive motor so as usual is not a lot of help)


No. It really was a piece of proverbial. Actually as simple as undoing two bolts, swapping a hose, and bleeding the system Like, the only thing I've done on a car, I think possibly ever, that's actually gone like it was supposed to and just worked! When we finished bleeding it Rich/Phil and me were looking at each other going "Surely it's not that easy? We must have missed something!"

Gotta love Rotornoia, I'm just waiting for the clutch to mess its gusset the next time I'm on a long trip and leave me stranded

[ian65]

Good stuff Nik..... that old slave looks pretty dire... it's a wonder it worked at all.
It's one of those jobs that just get's faster the more you do it.....once you've suffered with a faulty slave cylinder and have taken it off, tried to fix it, put it back on, taken it off again and then repeated the cycle about another 10 times ( like I have), you can do it in no time at all. I could probably beat the Mclaren pit team to change the clutch master and slave on my Fb, I've got it down to such a quick time!
Always impressed with the photos from under your bonnet... how come all your fixings and brackets are still the original gold colour when everyone elses are rusty? How long have you possessed these secret alchemy skills?

[Lucky]

Lol, I'd love to claim it's anything I'm doing but I think the honest truth is that this car never went out of the garage for the first 26 years of its life I do actually feel guilty leaving it out in the rain but I can't put it in the garage and the FD on the drive because a) it'd invalidate the insurance on the FD and b) the bonnet vents would fill up with water

I'm actually wracked with remorse enough to be considering building a car port for little ol' Safka, keep the worst of the weather off him. The rain's not sooo bad but the bloody seagulls tend to lay in regular B52 Arclight carpet bombing missions and that stuff strips paint faster than Nitromors For now I just wipe over eveything with an oily rag regularly to try and keep it looking nice. When I get a new bumper ( ) and spray it up I aim to get some matched paint left over to touch up all the arches and spots in the bay and stuff where it's started going through. They're there all right, I think the photos flatter a bit

[RamoNZ]

Ewww that does look manky. Hope you gave it all a good flush through as any of that muck left in there can do the same harm over time to the master cylinder. Clearly the slave I gave you must have been a non-turbo FC unit, I think we have covered elsewhere that the are almost identical and swap in place. One point to note, the 13b Turbo slave cylinders won't fit.

Also, I'm certainly no chemist, but I can tell you the moisture absorbing properties of the brake fluid is due to the fact it's Hygroscopic as opposed to the other word you made up simple mistake and I'm sure we will collectively let you off.

As you were....

[Lucky]

In my defence, it was near midnight when I wrote that and I was full of gin I think getting one letter away from hygroscopic ain't bad

And yeah, we flushed through a load of brown grimy cack that looked a bit like molasses before the fluid came through nice and clear. Definitely a job long past needing doing

[codge]

At the risk of being Oh So Boring, you have to bleed through all the brakes every 2 or 3 years, not forgetting the clutch.

That puts new clean fluid into contact with the bores and seals and stops this corrosion.

Boring Old Fart says Hi.