you eyeball the clutch master cylinder from below ..
looking up and past the clutch pedal.
any leakage there is not a good sign.

there's nothing you can see of the clutch master with the instrument cluster
out ..it's way, way down there ..
close to the floor almost. Having the lower steering column cover off helps
to see it too.

you can't see the boot very well on top of the clutch mass cylinder..but you
can feel it. Shouldn't be wet there, unless it's left over from the brake
master  cyl job.

Scott
www.turbovans.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Williams" <sbw@SBW.ORG>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 11:50 AM
Subject: Re: Leak Under Steering Column

> At 09:07 PM 8/15/2011, Steve Williams wrote:
>>Van Cafe in Santa Cruz replaced my master brake cylinder today.  It
>>was leaking at the booster.
>
> After that, I drove to L.A. and camped in my family's driveway for a week.
>
> Yesterday, preparing to head back up the coast, I was dismayed to
> find even more brake fluid than before on the floor in front of the
> driver's seat.  (I have rubber mats on the floor, so it wasn't in the
> carpet.)  As before, the bottom of the steering column plastic
> housing was very wet with fluid.
>
> The brake fluid reservoir was still full, and the brakes felt fine,
> so I phoned Van Cafe to let them know I was coming, then drove back
> to Santa Cruz.
>
> Before the drive, I spread paper towels on the floor.  Within a few
> hours, the towels had soaked up all of the fluid, and I didn't see
> any more dripping.  And there wasn't any fluid on the floor this morning.
>
> This morning, I went over to Van Cafe.  Peter took a look and said
> he's confident the fluid I saw was just spilled/leaked fluid left
> over from the work that was done a week before.  He didn't see any more
> leaks.
>
> Like an idiot, I forgot to ask him whether he can inspect the clutch
> cylinder thoroughly without removing the instrument cluster, or
> whether he had inspected the clutch cylinder last week.
>
> I'll keep an eye on it.