master cylinder clean up

[stevie]

Hello lads and lasses.

I have finally got round to getting my beloved "copper tank" back operational after being laid up for nearly 3yrs. Thought I would start at the front and work backwards. After fitting a new tyre I looked at the calipers which seemed a bit grotty so I decided to strip and clean, on inspection the chrome has corroded in places on the pistons. I have cleaned them (without scouring or scratching) up and put them back together and now hope they will be ok. Also have some new stainless brake lines to fit, however the old lines are refusing to undo from the "splitter", any suggestions guys as I dont want to shear the bolt which it is attached to what looks like some flimsy tin work. Will I have to strip off the headlight, clocks etc to get at the offending item? Also when draining the fluid, their was quite a bit of "matter" floating around in the reservoir. Thought while I was at it I would clean this up. Do you suggest stripping this down also, or would I be opening up a can of worms by doing so (its the round type). It seemed to be working OK but i don't want to be trying to get seals etc if I can avoid it. Any help much appreciated.

Regards Steve.

[nhmaf]

There are rebuild kits available for the rectangular master cylinders - perhaps there are replacement pistons for the round type but the round ones are
much less "rebuildable" friendly, then the rectangular type.    I rebuilt my rectangular M/C, but still ended up replacing it about a year or two later as there was
a fair bit of corrosion in the bore that I couldn't get out without severely gouging the metal.  You may be OK with the M/C as it is, though perhaps another flushing
out with more brake fluid wouldn't hurt to make sure that you've got all the "chunks" out of the system.   I think that you will find with stainless braided brake lines, you'll have considerably more stopping power than you had before, or at least, it will tend to require less lever effort.

I would go at that bolt with some penetrating oil for a few days, we have some products like WD-40 on this side of the pond that come with a long straw
so one can spray into smaller areas without soaking everything around.    If after a day or two of repeatedly soaking it and working the bolt a bit you cannot
get it loose, it is safest, in my opinion, to remove the headlight sheel so that you can get right at the thing.   Shouldn't need to remove the guages if your setup is like mine.

[Justin B.]

Since you are going to replace the lines anyway you can always remove the splitter and lines as an assembly and apply a torch to the splitter as a last resort.