The last time I drove the estate I found I was having to pump the clutch to get it in gear and had a lot trouble driving it home. Assuming it was the slave cylinder I drove it forwards into the garage so I could get to the nearside front of the car. After inspecting the slave cylinder and finding it leak free, I looked inside the car near the clutch the top of the clutch pedal and found that the firewall and carpet was wet with fluid. So, it was the clutch master cylinder that was leaking, not the slave! The motto here being - 'never assume things' when you ASSUME things you can make an ASS out of U & ME!
The next issue was that all of the fluid had now leaked out of the car while it had been in the garage since Friday and all of the pressure had gone out of the system leaving me with no clutch at all. So, the garage doors and garden gates were opened in readiness, the choke pulled out of full, the car put in reverse, and then the car was started. The car burst into life and immediately shot backwards where i was able to steer it out of the garage, down the drive onto the street where I quickly switched it off to stop it. The process was then repeated a few more times so I could turn it round and get it back in the garage the right way round so I could work on it. Easy! (not!)
The offending master cylinder was then removed and put on the bench ready for a clean up and to wait for a seal kit to arrive. (I thought I had one in stock, but that was for a slave as well.)
It was about this time that I retired to my warm house for a breakfast of ham and eggs and a cup of tea to warm up a bit!
As I could do nothing else to the estate, I turned my attention to Yellow. The last time i used it, it managed to blow the oil seal on the oil filter and spit most of its engine oil out all the the floor and chassis. (Good rust prevention if nothing else!) With a new Phram oil filter purchased and the old Wix one binned this was quite a simple job. With the estate now off of the road, this can be the back-up vehicle for a while.
Gertie was the next on the list as Dave Jones needed his gearbox cross member back that I borrowed off of him a few months back. I had borrowed it to try and eliminate the vibration issue I have, but it turned out not to be this anyway. This was quickly changed and the part put in my car ready for delivery to his house on Saturday.
After another warm up indoors, the next item on the agenda was to start stripping the 2.5pi engine I have lined up for Gertie. Stripping the bottom half of the engine revealed that new big end bearings will be required (as suspected) and the crankshaft might get away with a light polish rather than a re-grind.
Further inspections will carry on at another time and parts collected ready for Gertie's heart transplant over Christmas.
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