Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I have recently overhauled the slave cylinder and did the bleeding the other way round. Pushing the fluid from the bottom up to the master cylinder with the help of an injection (large hospital type) and a piece of plastic tube to connect the injection to the slave. I was done within seconds! You may ask someone to monitor the fluid level and bubbles in the reservoir to avoid flushing the engine bay while you are pushing from underneath the car.

But: today I tried to pull the master cylinder for a rebuilt. Can anyone tell me how for heaven?s sake it should be possible to remove the pin at the clutch pedal without cutting a big hole in the pedal box from above? There is no pliers on earth to reach the splint.

get a spare master cylinder cap, drill a hole in it and but a tire valve stem in it. Get a little regulator[the kind for spray guns is cheap] and set it for a few pounds

bleed your clutch and brakes in minutes

the 'no tools' way is the same as brakes, backwards. Fill the slave with fluid before installing it, attach the hose and then push fluid back into the master, done.

The Gunson Eezibleed can be rigged to push the fluid up from the bottom too. You want the absolute minimum of pressure in the tyre you are using as a pressure source. I did this on my MGB and it worked straight away with no pumping needed at all. For this technique it doesn't matter if the bleed valve is lower than the pipe connection - it might even be an advantage.

I agree about the Spyder chassis. I can only get at the slave by removing half of the exhaust manifold - mine is in two parts.
Mike

marode wrote: But: today I tried to pull the master cylinder for a rebuilt. Can anyone tell me how for heaven?s sake it should be possible to remove the pin at the clutch pedal without cutting a big hole in the pedal box from above? There is no pliers on earth to reach the splint.

I have done it once in situ and it took me hours to remove and even longer to replace the pedal pins ... on my back in the footweel with various long nose pliers and dropping them a thousand times on my face . i would remove the whole pedal box now as its quicker. I have my pedal box out now for the respray of my Plus 2 engine bay and while it is out I will make the top plate removable.

cheers
Rohan

Yes Owen W modified my +2 pedal box in the '80s so that the top was removable. Very worthwhile mod. If i'd been working at lotus cars in the '60s and came up with that suggestion, I'll bet ACBC would have made me employee of the month for the saving in labour time.