HOW TO .... FIT A CLUTCH MASTER CYLINDER

My clutch pedal started getting soft when in traffic making the biting point drop to the floor and selection of 1st or reverse v.difficult, the slave cylinder wasn't leaking and all lines are new and braided so next up was the master cylinder

 

1 Lots of nasty looking stuff in there. Put rags or towels under the cylinder to protect your paint. Use a baster or similar to remove the brake fluid (I didn't have one to hand so used the super absorbant kitchen towels folded up to pull it out). For this job I used a one-man bleed kit (Woodies sell Draper kits), at this stage I put the clear tube on the slave cylinder bleed nipple and loosened it, then slowly pumped the pedal till all the old fluid in the lines had drained. Then closed the nipple again.		2 Remove this 12mm nut on the firewall under the cylinder
3 Use a 10mm brake line wrench to loosen the clutch hard line from the side of the cylinder. Do this before loosening the last (3rd) bolt which is under the dash. To find the last nut, follow the clutch pedal to the firewall and just to the left of the mounting point is the nut - 12mm. Ratchet + extension makes it easy. Forgot to get a photo of this will try to get one soon.		4 Lots of muck in there
5 If you were rebuilding your cylinder (instead of replacing it) you just remove this snap ring and the piston + spring will come out. Replace the seals, hone the cylinder and put it back together.		6 Put the new cylinder on the car (ensure the clutch pedal rod fits into the hole in the end of the master cylinder as you do it), screw the clutch hardline on first and tighten, then replace and tighten the other two nuts down. At this stage I filled the master with new fluid, waited until the bubbles stopped appearing, refilled as the level dropped, then opened the nipple on the slave (heh ) and pumped slowly until I saw fluid w/no bubbles in the clear line of the one-man bleed kit. Tightened up the slave, checked the level in the master, job done.