Jim,

Attached are some posts that I have saved that explain the slave and
master replacement.  Also attached is a zip file of a good web page
describing the job.

If you really count them up, people are quite divided about whether you
need to replace both the master and the slave at the same time.  And a
good percentage of those who advocate doing both were told that by their
mechanic and spent the $$ for both.  Hmmm?  (I actually attempted to
find all posts on this in the archives a few years ago when faced with a
slave cylinder replacement and being ready to try to do it myself.)

There are many people who report never replacing both at the same time
and not ever having the failure of the second one come anytime remotely
soon, if ever at all.  I have replace 5-6 slave cylinders, on 2
different vans over the years and have never had a master cylinder go
out.  20 years and over 200k miles on those two vans.

It is relative easy to do the slave and bleed though the bolts that hold
it to the bracket are tough as mentioned.  You can then see how the
system operates.  There is a very good chance that your master may never
fail you and an even higher chance that it won't be anytime soon.

I exchanged an email about this with a list member a few weeks ago.  I
told him of my history of replacements.  He has never had a slave
cylinder fail but has had to replace 3 master cylinders.

--
Sam Walters
Baltimore, MD

89 Syncro GL, Zetec Inside
85 Westy Weekender
85 Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel - to become veggie oil powered

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