Clutch and brake master cylinders

Disassembled brake servo assembly

So the next job was to look at replacing the clutch and brake master cylinders. In reality, it's difficult to tell if replacement is necessary without getting to the inside and checking for corrosion damage in the cylinder bores, but from the outside the parts do look a little the worse for wear. They've been sitting unused in their hydraulic oil for quite a while so it's quite likely some rust has formed.

Getting replacement brake parts is not simple. There's a lot of internet chat about the servo and master cylinder being equivalent to Morris Marina Ital parts, but it's difficult to confirm this. I had a look at the Lucas Girling catalogue with the guys at Lotus Bits and the part numbers don't seem to be the same. They can refurbish the parts, but this is a pretty expensive process. In the end, it seems the most economical and simple solution may be fit S3 servo and master cylinder, as these parts are apparently easier to source.

The clutch master cylinder is much more straightforward as the main cylinder part is equiavlent to a Land Rover Defender 90 part and is readily available from 4x4 parts dealers.

New and old clutch master cylinders

I managed to pick a new part up from Ebay for not much more than £10. The piston is not quite the same though, so it's necessary to retain the existing piston and then swap them over. A word of caution: watch out when removing the circlip to release the piston from the body as a flick of a screwdriver flung mine across the garage and it has yet to be found!! Getting the master cylinders out involves a bit of fiddling around in the pedal box to release the split and clevis pins from the pedals - not a simple process as there's not much room in there! For the brake pedal, you need to remove all the retaining nuts from the servo assembly in the front compartment so you can pull this towards the front of the car as far as possible - this moves the clevis pin along the steering column a little to a gap near the spline that just leaves enough clearance to extract it. Hopefully, using the same approach in reverse will allow it to go back in again OK! Now waiting for some bits (circlips and pliers) so I can get this rebuilt and then I'll try to source the brake parts. Then I'll have a go at using the Eezibleed kit that I picked up from Screwfix - this uses air pressure from the spare tyre to make bleeding the brake and clutch systems a very simple process (in theory!).