In article ,
(J.R. Williams) wrote:

Gunner

Try to locate a brake cylinder repair kit with the corect cup size.
many of the older parts stores had the individual cups available.

That was my move when I was having clutch MC trouble a while back. Darn
thing was eating cups. Went through three rebuild kits in 3 months.
Finally gave up on the Autozone/Kragen's BS and went to a *REAL*
auto-parts store (not Autozone, not Kragens, not anything similar - I'm
talking about the kind of place where you walk in and the smell of
machine oil gives you a friendly slap upside the head as a welcome,
there are stools at the counter so you can cop a squat and jawbone with
the guy behind the counter (who probably has grease-stains on his
coveralls, and maybe a streak of grease on his nose as he comes out of
the back wiping Go-Jo off his hands 'cause he just came in from helping
a customer put a newly bought part on his vehicle out in the parking
lot) about what it is you need, and so on - a *REAL* auto-parts store.)
and got myself half a dozen cups that were aimed at brake-slaves for a
buck and a half out the door. Been using those ever since.

In my case, they need to be cut down just slightly (the lip was a hair -
maybe two millimeters, if that - too "tall", so it completely blocked
the inlet port in the cylinder, although the diameter was right) by
brushing the open end across the wheel of the bench grinder a couple of
times, but otherwise, they were perfect. I'm running on the second one
of them now, in fact - the first one I cut down too far, so it died the
same way the (much lighter) "intended for the clutch MC" cups were
going. The slightly longer and heavier lip on the brake cups never
encounters the bad spot in the cylinder (A razor-edge on the forward
part of the inlet port that, with the edge of the piston, forms a
shear), so it doesn't get pushed up into the inlet port by the piston
and "clipped off". The one in there now has been going strong for...
thinks Gotta be close to 7 months now, with no sign at all of trouble.

I hear the nanny-state folks already... "What if it fails 'cause you
used the wrong parts!?!? You could kill somebody!" Hardly... It's a
clutch, not brakes or steering. A clutch is, at least to anyone I
consider to be a minimally skilled driver of a stick, nothing more than
a convenience item for everything but starting from a dead stop. Other
than that specific situation, there is no actual "gotta have it to make
things work" need for a clutch. (Yes, I know, slap-shifting isn't always
fun and easy, but it *IS* doable in *EVERY* vehicle with a manual
transmission, whether it's a stick or "on the tree", that I've ever
gotten behind the wheel of) So the clutch fails. Big fat hairy deal.
Worst case scenario: I find out I've got no clutch "the hard way", by
stepping on it and getting no response. Oooh!!!! Panic situation! We're
all gonna die!!!! NOT!

How hard is it to slap the shifter into neutral and coast to the side of
the road? Or, more likely, just keep on driving, shifting clutchless if
needed, until I find someplace to either turn around and go home to the
toolkit, or if I've got my usual travelling kit with me, sit there and
do the 20 minute cup-swap? Never mind the fact that I have yet to meet a
vehicle that can't be stopped by mashing the brakes, regardless of the
gear it might be "stuck" in. Sure, it'll probably stall out in the
process, but so what?

Nah... safety considerations on this substitution are nil, so save the
lecture for someone who actually needs it.

Of course, there's another plus: the rebuild kit for my MC is (or was -
probably closer to $25 now, what with inflation) $19.68 plus tax. It
consists of a new (or perhaps salvaged? No way to be certain, really)
aluminum piston, a spring, and a new rubber cup. Other than the first
time, I've never replaced the piston or spring - They simply don't wear
out. Why should I buy a $20 kit when all I actually need is a 25 cent
rubber and 20 minutes to put it in?

--
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