NOS Clutch master

[Joe_Pinehill]

I bought a NOS Clutch master for the Spit from Ebay. It looks good, not complaints. Is it worth putting new seals from a rebuild kit in? The boot on the end, and the cap seal feel rubbery enough

 

[martx-5]

The important seal is the one on the inside of the bore. It's easy enough to pop off the boot and clip and check out the insides. The bore should be nice and clean, and the seal should be supple.

 

[Andrew Mace]

It can't hurt to pop it apart just to make sure the insides are rust-free (and not possibly gunked up from dried out Girling Red Brake Grease or the like). That said, I've used a number of NOS Girling cylinders in recent years...without problem.

 

[rotoflex]

I'd rebuild it.

It's easy & fast enough while it's out, but when it goes in rebuild will be annoying if a problem shortly occurs.

Save the old cylinder! The easy way on hydraulics (which tend to sort of start getting bad before becoming awful) is to save the old one, when the new one starts going order a rebuild kit for the old one, rebuild the old one, swap it onto the car, repeat. Downtime is reduced, especially because of problems that crop up in the rebuild, & the most dangerous time for older cars is when they're immobilized for repair.

This strategy of keeping, rebuilding & swapping is fast & very effective at keeping the car on the road. It also makes it so you can watch for & retain quality OEM spares as opposed to some later ones of lesser quality. It does result in owning 1.66666 cars of that model, but that's what file boxes & shelves are for.

 

[Joe_Pinehill]

When rebuilding? some posts ive read suggest soacking the new seals overnight in brake fluid. I was just planning on just using a little fluid to lube the seals and bore,

 

[rotoflex]

I've never heard of that.

The typical & correct way is to lube the seals with that funky red Girling grease for hydraulic rubber before installing them.

Most non-Girling rebuild kits don't come with it though, & probably the typical thing is to just lube them completely with brake fluid & assemble.

 

[Twosheds]

When rebuilding? some posts ive read suggest soacking the new seals overnight in brake fluid. I was just planning on just using a little fluid to lube the seals and bore,

I understand the idea of lubing the seals with brake fluid upon installation, but don't see how soaking them in fluid would help. If the seals absorb the fluid, they wouldn't be very good seals.