Master Cylinder Replacement - argh!

[yosini]

Hello,

After losing all clutch pedal around 3 miles from home the other week and limping back with clutchless gearchanges I've started to replace the leaking master cylinder. Should be easy I thought....

I've not removed the pedal pox as that looked like it would disturb too many other things and managed to get the two main cylinder nut/bolts off fine. The split pin however that retains the input shaft to the pedal is a b***er!It wouldn't be too bad if it was on the side to the brake pedal as ther eis more room and visibility there, how it was even installed that way is a mystery to me - must have been done by a very skinny child with vice like gripper hands.

Am I approaching this wrong? Do I need to take the whole pedal box off? I hope not. Is there a magic trick?

Just thought I'd write a quick plea for help whilst the blood rushed back to my fingers after being wedged upside down in the drivers seat with my head in the footwell.

Cheers

Joe

[nmauduit]

the art of Lotus maintenance requires (or teaches) flexibility... esp. working on the pedals.
You did not mention explicitly your car model or year, but Is it not possible to turn the clevis so that the split pin si more easily accessible ?

[yosini]

ah yes sorry - Plus 2 - I guess there is a bit more room down there than a baby Elan. The clevis pin I can rotate around so the split pin I can just about get my fingers onto - I think I need some very long needle nosed pliers as there isn't enough room in there to get normal ones.

Cheers

Joe

[yosini]

my current thinking is to get a holesaw and cut an sized hole through the top of the pedal box to give me access. I can then use a rubber bung of some sort afterwards to seal it up until I need it again. This seems like a clever idea to me....please correct me if I'm about to do something foolish...

Cheers
Joe

[john.p.clegg]

Firstly it's only two bolts to remove the front seat , but if you are contemplating removing the top think about replacing it with a square lid...just as easy with careful use of an angle grinder , leaving a small lip for re-fixing ( with self tappers? ) .

John

[gus]

drilled the hole 20 years ago, maybe more. I have seen it on many +2's and have also seen plates that imply someone cut the whole top off

[yosini]

lovely - this sounds like the best solution then. Powertools.

I thought swapping the cylinder was going to be the easy bit...

Thanks all

[prezoom]

Cut out the top of the pedal box, leaving a lip around the inside edge. Enough to support the placement of self tapping screws to hold the new cover you will have to make. You will be able to get at everything with a reasonable amount of ease, considering you are working on a Lotus. Just replaced the MC on mine.

As an aside, if you add another fluid line, replacing the bleed screw on the slave, and run it up between the brake and clutch masters, the slave will become self bleeding. Just fill the master and fluid will seek the level of the fluid in the master. No crawling under the car or pumping the clutch pedal. If you need to pump the clutch pedal for some reason, you can use a lever on the pedal arm while standing at the side of the car.

[MarkDa]

If you can pull out the split pin with pliers then on re assembly use R clip which is a bit easier to insert.

[TeeJay]

As suggested above.

[alan.barker]

For me in the past i used to remove the Pedal Box with the 2 master cylinders.
Which gives you the chance to replace seals in both. Also you can bleed both then put a plug in each exit.
With the +2 Pedal Box you can also get water leaks because you need a gasket between the Pedal Box and the Body.
Alan