Clutch Slave Cylinder replacement saga

1

I started to lose brake/clutch fluid a couple of week ago, looked under the Syncro and saw that the slave cylinder was leaking. Got a replacement from Justkampers $46.40 (branded JP Group- Clutex, distributed by Denmark * Germany), scheduled in 2 hours to replace and lined up my son to help bleed.

Tried a suggestion from AA Transaxle of taking off the clutch lever and removing the bracket and slave as one unit - no go, lever well and truly rusted on shaft.

Take off bracket and slave, discover the rod I had welded on the rear nut of the slave had rusted off - replace with rivet nut ( new tool I bought recently )

Find there is not enough clearance for rear attaching bolt to go down into slave cylinder hole so grind off bottom of bleeder boss. Bolt in cylinder and bracket.

Go to attach fluid line banjo bolt, drop one of the copper washers, spend fruitless 20 mins looking for it, race off to friendly mechanic, find him closed, go to Bunnings and get fibre washer and drill to fit.

All together now, start to bleed with son's help, but find nothing comes out of bleeder hole, just oozes out of base of bleeder!! Pull out bleeder and find it has no passage through to base!!

Replace it with bleeder from old unit, get more brake fluid, find son has shot off in disgust.

Getting dark now, wife comes home, politely asks her help to bleed, but am refused with her reminding me of other last minute repair jobs that went wrong.

All fixed and bled next morning - 5 hours in total - think I had better check on master cylinder, yes it has a slight ooze coming out of the boot!!! check on Justkampers $165.00!! check on eBay, SMF Autoparts has a Meyle shipped to Aust for $43.63 so I order one and write a critical review on the Justkampers website.


Ah the joys of owning a Syncro!!

2

Wow, what an event!! Unfortunately that's the way it goes some times. I am about to fit a new slave cylinder, so hope I don't have those issues! (FTE brand) I was looking at that yesterday and was thinking removing the whole bracket would be the easiest way to get it out (I have my GB out, so assess is easy!). I will make sure my lever is not seized on.


Just on the  rivet nuts, keep in mind they are very soft (soft you can set them), they are quite week and also prone to spinning if you over tighten the bolt. They are a wonderful product, just good to know their limitations.

If you buy new nuts, you can get them with serrations on the  back of the head to limit spinning. I would also recommend using a good never seize product, last thing you need is a bit of corrosion and have the rivet nut spin next time you remove.


I too had a blocked bleeder on my slave cylinder (replaced my master cyl not long ago), but it was the old bleeder and has some crap in it. Make sure you fit the cover plugs back on the bleeder screw!


Clutch master $US55 from van café, FTE brand, mine went in fine and is working well.

I will be getting my originals kitted with new seals to keep in the cupboard

Richard



---In Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com, <bobtau01@...> wrote :

I started to lose brake/clutch fluid a couple of week ago, looked under the Syncro and saw that the slave cylinder was leaking. Got a replacement from Justkampers $46.40 (branded JP Group- Clutex, distributed by Denmark * Germany), scheduled in 2 hours to replace and lined up my son to help bleed.

Tried a suggestion from AA Transaxle of taking off the clutch lever and removing the bracket and slave as one unit - no go, lever well and truly rusted on shaft.

Take off bracket and slave, discover the rod I had welded on the rear nut of the slave had rusted off - replace with rivet nut ( new tool I bought recently )

Find there is not enough clearance for rear attaching bolt to go down into slave cylinder hole so grind off bottom of bleeder boss. Bolt in cylinder and bracket.

Go to attach fluid line banjo bolt, drop one of the copper washers, spend fruitless 20 mins looking for it, race off to friendly mechanic, find him closed, go to Bunnings and get fibre washer and drill to fit.

All together now, start to bleed with son's help, but find nothing comes out of bleeder hole, just oozes out of base of bleeder!! Pull out bleeder and find it has no passage through to base!!

Replace it with bleeder from old unit, get more brake fluid, find son has shot off in disgust.

Getting dark now, wife comes home, politely asks her help to bleed, but am refused with her reminding me of other last minute repair jobs that went wrong.

All fixed and bled next morning - 5 hours in total - think I had better check on master cylinder, yes it has a slight ooze coming out of the boot!!! check on Justkampers $165.00!! check on eBay, SMF Autoparts has a Meyle shipped to Aust for $43.63 so I order one and write a critical review on the Justkampers website.


Ah the joys of owning a Syncro!!

3
Ha ha ha!!  That's a great story.  I can relate to all of that.  Everyone is too busy or disappears when I need help bleeding brakes.  Seized clutch levers must be a T3 thing, have had a seized one on a T3 before but never on any of my T2 gearboxes.  I have been doing my rear CV joints this past week.and it has been a bit of a saga too.  

Socket head bolts in the trailing arms were tight as and I spent 2 long nights till 1 am getting them out.  Right at the end found gearbox bash plate has to come out to get shafts out.  Thought the hardest part was over but CV inners were tight on shaft splines and had to knock them out in the vice with a hammer and drift.

Dropped one, got my boot under it to break it's fall but the balls fell out of the other end and I could only find 5.  Wasted about half an hour looking for the 6th one, shifting stuff from under the bench, gave up and went to bed.

Next day someone at work suggested there may have only been 5, someone else may have left one out in the past.  Got all the bits clean on a Sunday and started re assembly.  Decided to pinch a ball from one of my old T2 CVs but couldn't find them.  Didn't have enough grease either so could only do 2 joints anyway, got one shaft back in, rode bike to work again Monday.

Tried to leave work right on time to buy grease after work but got there 5 mins after they closed so had to ride bike again next day.  Got a flat tyre on the bike that day.  Couldn't get grease again.

Finally got grease, started re assembly of other shaft, remembered missing ball.  Must be there somewhere, decided to have another look, turns out there was a length of 2" pipe under the work bench about a metre long.  The 6th ball had somehow landed in the end of the pipe and rolled the entire length of the pipe and was sitting on the floor right at the back wall under the work bench.

Got the other shaft in tonight, will put the bash plate back in tomorrow, should have been a simple job but took the best part of a week and there are still 4 more CVs up front in unknown condition.

I am thinking they will be just fine and don't need checking :)

Neil

  

 

From: "bobtau01@gmail.com [Syncro_T3_Australia]" <Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com>
To: Syncro_T3_Australia@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, 2 September 2016, 16:45
Subject: [Syncro_T3_Australia] Clutch Slave Cylinder replacement saga

 
I started to lose brake/clutch fluid a couple of week ago, looked under the Syncro and saw that the slave cylinder was leaking. Got a replacement from Justkampers $46.40 (branded JP Group- Clutex, distributed by Denmark * Germany), scheduled in 2 hours to replace and lined up my son to help bleed.
Tried a suggestion from AA Transaxle of taking off the clutch lever and removing the bracket and slave as one unit - no go, lever well and truly rusted on shaft.
Take off bracket and slave, discover the rod I had welded on the rear nut of the slave had rusted off - replace with rivet nut ( new tool I bought recently )
Find there is not enough clearance for rear attaching bolt to go down into slave cylinder hole so grind off bottom of bleeder boss. Bolt in cylinder and bracket.
Go to attach fluid line banjo bolt, drop one of the copper washers, spend fruitless 20 mins looking for it, race off to friendly mechanic, find him closed, go to Bunnings and get fibre washer and drill to fit.
All together now, start to bleed with son's help, but find nothing comes out of bleeder hole, just oozes out of base of bleeder!! Pull out bleeder and find it has no passage through to base!!
Replace it with bleeder from old unit, get more brake fluid, find son has shot off in disgust.
Getting dark now, wife comes home, politely asks her help to bleed, but am refused with her reminding me of other last minute repair jobs that went wrong.
All fixed and bled next morning - 5 hours in total - think I had better check on master cylinder, yes it has a slight ooze coming out of the boot!!! check on Justkampers $165.00!! check on eBay, SMF Autoparts has a Meyle shipped to Aust for $43.63 so I order one and write a critical review on the Justkampers website.

Ah the joys of owning a Syncro!!


4

Glad you found the 6th ball Neil!
I can see from your story I have to clean off the crap both on my workbench and underneath it before I replace one / two split CV boots - trouble is there seems to always more pressing jobs to do.
I am trying to maintain the Syncro, my wife's car, my son's car and put in a new kitchen - I think it is time to run away from home!
Bob T



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5

Wow, what a saga! The joy's of owning old cars!

Hope the front's go smoother!

Richard