Clutch Master Cylinder Help

[Crockett]

Hi,

I've been having some problems with the clutch on my 2000 not disengaging properly. An investigation of the master and slave cylinders revealed that both had been leaking.

The slave cylinder was easy enough to repair but when it came to the master cylinder, I noticed that the spring was bent to one side (toward the tapered end) and as I turned it in my handls it broke apart into two pieces.

I have tried the usual suppliers for a new master cylinder but they don't seem to have any in stock. Does anyone know if I can use any other spring (it does not appear to have scored the cylinder bore) or any other master cylinder?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Daryl

[Deleted User]

I had a similar problem on my 2000 in NZ.
It got to the point where there wasnt enough travel on the pedal to change gear without it crunching a little.
I ended up taking the master cylinder apart and found that the spring had broken in two. It meant that the cylinder wasnt collecting enough fluid to push the slave far enough. I took the spring to a scrap yard and the nice guy gave me a spring which was fairly close in size. I had to taper the end with a pair of pliers but it worked absolutely fine and didn't cost a cent. I'd suggest you try that.

[Richard B]

Chris Witor used to stock them, have you tried him?

[heraldcoupe]

I had the same problem with our 2000 a couple of years ago. The correct spring for our car (1968 Mk1 2000) was not available, but Chris Witor had produced an adaptor to allow the use of a different spring. I think the spring supplied was intended for a later 2000, so in your case the adaptor may not be necessary,
Cheers,
Bill.

[Crockett]

[quote by=Richard_B link=Blah.pl?b=2000,m=1148762173,s=2 date=1149027434]Chris Witor used to stock them, have you tried him?[/quote]

Chris Witor didn't have any in stock either (the spring or the cylinder) but he did refer me on to someone who did have the springs.

Earlpart had them in stock and were going to post one out tonight, so it looks like the car should be back on the road at the weekend :D

Daryl.

[sahtuning2000]

You haven,t tried to bleed it yet!!!don,t hold your breath,they can be a nightmare,i used an ezibleed,did the trick first time,pumping the clutch just didn,t work,and i,am not the first???

[Crockett]

Hi,

Yes, I noticed that when I repaired the slave cylinder a few weeks ago. Bleeding was a bit of a pain and took a while before suddenly the last bubble of air finally came out.

That was also without having to drain all the components (master cyl, pipes etc.) which this time I will have little option about doing.

Don't worry - I am prepared for the worst as I know these can be a pain!

Somewhere (maybe on one of these forums) I saw a suggestion about removing the slave and holding it up to bleed it. I may give that a try if it looks like being too troublesome. Today is the day I plan to do it so I'll know soon enough.

Regards
Daryl.

[Crockett]

[quote by=sahtuning2000 link=Blah.pl?b=2000,m=1148762173,s=5 date=1149107838]You haven,t tried to bleed it yet!!!don,t hold your breath,they can be a nightmare,i used an ezibleed,did the trick first time,pumping the clutch just didn,t work,and i,am not the first???[/quote]

After spending some hours trying unsuccessfully to bleed the clutch using the traditional method, I finally gave up and invested in an Eezibleed kit.

You were quite right. This made the job an absolute piece of cake by comparison and bled the system in only a few minutes.

The only problem is that despite all the repairs that I've done to the master and slave cylinders together with bleeding thje system, the original problem still isn't really resolved, which is very frustrating.

I've made a subsequent post about this.

regards
Daryl.