> Anyway my question is this, has anyone else had a problem
> with the master cylinders from Apple Hydraulics? This master
> cylinder came from Apple and was the second one after the
> first one only lasted two weeks. I have seen them
> recommended on the list but my experience is not good.
I have no experience with Apple's products, so I am not going to comment on
that. But I am going to comment on this phenomenon of leaking rebuilt and
new master cylinders.
I was having lots of customers complain that they would rebuild their own
cylinders and all of a sudden they started leaking. I have even had one
customer that had a new master cylinders (brake and clutch, MG & TR) that
started leaking. I have examined a few of these cylinders, and the bores
are not scored and the seals are just fine. So what is the problem?
I strongly believe that people are not taking the time to adequately flush
the entire brake system out. If you have to waste 32oz or more of brake
fluid until you are sure every piece of contaminate is out, do it... a 32oz
bottle of Castrol LMA is $5. Any foreign matter - rust, dirt, rubber
debris - stuck in the old lines can work themselves back into the master
cylinder and get under the seals (which is what I found, accumulated crud
around the outer lips of the new seals). When this happens you have a leak.
I personally believe it is wise to replace the flexible rubber hoses at each
wheel when putting in a new brake master. The ideal thing would be to tear
everything apart, clean each seal in the RWCs and Calipers and make sure
nothing bad is lurking in the old metal pipes.
After I started telling people that I would only guarantee hydraulic
components if they followed my guidelines on flushing and fluids use, the
entire problem of leaking hydraulics went away. The brake fluid is cheap,
so use it generously to flush the system entirely.
The problem of leaky clutch hydraulics seems to be a lot less wide spread.
Then again you have only one flexible hose that does not really break down
and you do not have 20 odd feet of hard lines, also there is only one slave
cylinder as opposed to one at each wheel.
I know the volume of fluid that the brake master cylinder holds does not
appear to be much. But the volume of fluid that all of those hard lines and
flexible lines hold is quite large. This is the object of the flushing, to
get every drop of the old fluid out and to dislodge and expel loose
contaminates.
Kai (Vance your ignition reply is coming soon!)
|