Just a quick update on some of the work recently on my MK2
The clutch system when I got the car was in a pretty dire state, with obvious leaks and spillage of hydraulic fluid everywhere and a lot of corrosion.
So I have replaced the slave cylinder. This took some doing due to the corroded solid actuator arm joints, but copious WD40 and a lot of bashing and banging eventually freed it up.
The master cylinder is currently being worked on (hopefully a overhaul kit will suffice) but I had to go and get myself a reasonable nut splitter in the end as the corrosion to the mounting plate and bolts on the top of the crossmember/bulkhead have rendered it all a solid mass of iron oxide. There's several other nuts and bolts around the car which I'm certain this useful little tool will be applied to as I'm fed up of spending ages trying to get rusty old nuts and bolts apart. A nut splitter is definitely a recommended bit of kit.
I was amazed to find (despite a fair bit of weeping fluid from the pipe junctions) that after a couple of depressions of the clutch pedal, and of course bleading the new cylinder, that I have a working clutch
I'll be replacing a fair few pipes shortly too.
The main bug bear, other than the corrosion which could have been avoided by a bit of maintenance or use of better quality nuts and bolts, is the usual one of having to be a contortionist to manage to get a spanner or other tool (particularly the hammer) to make contact with the effective surface of which ever mass of iron oxide I'm trying to remove. I have over the years managed to perfect many techniques of getting into foot-wells or behind exhausts etc. with a variety of implements to either loosen or tighten many different fixings, however in addition to getting older these days I have to contend with Evie (
that's her in the driving seat) who believes I must want to play if I'm rolling around on my back and kicking feet up in the air in peculiar directions.
So I have grazed knuckles and a couple of blood blisters on my hands and my clothes are covered in paw prints from Evie to balance up the appearance of having been in a fight I do have a pretty big grin though from finding out I've got a clutch that isn't welded solid to the flywheel.