Transmission, Manual

Master Cylinder Hose Replacement

Master Cylinder Hose Replacement

I decided to replace the infamous blue hose that feeds fluid to the clutch master cylinder. Mine
was starting to shed the blue covering and felt soft. I had some of the hose left over from when my son replaced that hose on the '88 S4 last summer so it was handy. That sucker is really hidden down under the brake master cylinder booster, but by feeling and tugging a little I got the hose off the cylinder connector. So far, so good, I thought in my stupidity. Now to put the new hose back on and I'll be finished. There was no way I could get the hose on the end of that clutch master cylinder fitting. The fitting it slides over kept moving and turning. I even ran an aluminum wire of about 1/8" dia through the hose and into the cylinder fitting to keep the hose and fitting aligned. No go. Bummer. Bad words.

I decided I had better take out the cylinder. Not a bad job at all. Disconnect the output line to the clutch cylinder. Disconnect the actuating rod from the clutch pedal arm. Loosen two bolts with a 13mm socket, and push the old cylinder out. I left the two bolts in the holes because there was a couple spacers that looked like they could get loose/lost and make reassembly more difficult if the bolts were out. Upon looking at the old cylinder, I noticed that it was starting to leak. Not enough to require replacing fluid in the 6 months I've had the car, or to drip on the carpet, but the inside of the boot around the end of the cylinder, and the end of the actuator rod was wet with brake fluid. Now, I have to get a new cylinder, or rebuild this one. I think there are rebuild kits. I did dodge a bullet though, well maybe a BB, in that I was able to catch the slightly leaking clutch cylinder and get it fixed before some more disasterous type of failure occurred. Now getting it back together may be more of a problem, but I'll tackle that when I get the
new cylinder.

Louis Ott
'90GT

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