My wrenching time got interrupted by a minor work crisis, so I did not get as far as I had hoped. Before things went pear-shaped, though, I started with the slave cylinder.
The new seals arrived in the mail, and getting the old ones out started with putting a drift through the banjo bolt connection on the back of the slave cylinder and giving it a quick tap.
Once the piston was sticking out, it was easy to pull out of the cylinder and start cleaning off.
The old seals were pretty toast and, with the use of a small pick, came off without a fight. I hit the inside of the cylinder with the hone while I cleaned up the piston with a wire brush and some brake cleaner.
Getting the new seals on was definitely more difficult than removing the old ones, but with a screwdriver to provide leverage, it only took a couple minutes to have both seals installed.
I did some basic bleeding of the system, but it required more than the two hands God blessed me with, so for now, I put the new rubber boot on the master, hooked up all the fluid lines, and went about threading it back into the car.
I left the clutch lined up with the hole in the firewall and the clutch hose routed under the brake lines in such a way that it shouldn’t rub and abrade like the old one did. I think the connection to the slave cylinder will also need to be re-clocked about 180 degrees by just loosening the banjo bolt and giving everything a quick twist. When I have some help, we’ll bolt the master cylinder back to the firewall, re-install the clutch pedal linkage, and then finish up with the bleeding.
Moving back to the brakes, I finished flushing out and vacuum bleeding all three ports on the left brakes. As I was getting ready to move to the right side, I got interrupted, but at least I know that the two brake hoses on the left side are not collapsed.
Before I had to go, I took a quick look at the tires that were on the car and noticed the “Made In” notation. Now I knew the tires were really old, but I had no idea they were this old.
The date code is 324 which means the 32nd week of a year before 2000 that ended in a 4. By 1994, West Germany wasn’t around any more. So are these tires from 1984???