On 05/08/2015 8:14 AM, Max Dillon via Mercedes wrote:
Mitch,
Your email arrived last night?
Did exactly that test, couple of times. No spots, the reservoir level didn't
change.
I've ordered a FTE master cylinder from Auto Haus AZ, $144 plus shipping,
should have that by Thursday evening.
Interestingly I can find rebuild kits for FTE MCs, haven't looked too hard but
one price was $75. I may have to snag a good FTE MC core from the junkyard and
store that away with a rebuild kit. So tempting to hoard parts...
I ordered a rebuild kit for the mc in my 1976 115 300D.
It took a while to show up but I got it. It is Raybestos brand and says
that it was made in Australia.
I am struggling to get the kit installed however. It was a bit of a bear
to get apart and is also challenging me in putting it back together. No
problem taking the mc out of the car.
It is amazing how stretchy the rubber parts are. Even after the Lord
only knows how long the existing parts had soaked in brake fluid, they
were not easy to get off of the metal plunger. It took some prying to
get them off. Then one has to stretch the new ones onto it. Not easy. I
cut the nozzle off of a big caulking tube and used it to slide the
rubber cup up on over the ridge on the metal plunger. I tried to just
roll it on with my fingers but that is not easy when trying to do it to
a small rubber doodad soaked in brake fluid while wearing rubber gloves.
Using the nozzle from the caulking tube permitted me to stretch the
rubber cup up to about the size of the metal plunger diameter so that I
could slip it over the ridge into the groove. While doing so, I hoped I
was not doing it any harm. I guess, time will tell.
Now that I have that part together, my next challenge is to get that
plunger with the rubber cups on it to slide into the bore on the mc
casting. There is no way to do it with one's fingers as the smaller bore
is at least 2 inches down inside the larger bore on the stepped housing.
I think the answer is to find some tubing the right size and slip the
plunger into it and reach the whole mess down inside and get it lined up
with the bore and then push the plunger out of the tubing into the bore.
I measured the plunger and it is .749" so pretty close to 3/4" and 3/4"
inside diameter pipe ought not to be too hard to find. I need to poke
around in my junk and see what I can come up with, or head to a hardware
store with my digital calipers to see what I can find.
The service manual on the CD indicates that MB likely provided a rebuild
kit for these at one time that came essentially assembled with a new
plunger inside a plastic tube. One shoved the tube into the mc housing
and just pushed it in. At least that is what it looks like to me in the
photos.
I am not so lucky. I just got a small bag of loose parts in a box. The
price was right and the mc looks good so it seemed to me to be a good
thing to try to keep the car pretty much original. However, I have paid
more in insurance for the period it has been off the road while I waited
for the parts and then while it waited for me to work on it, than it
would have cost to have a rebuilt one almost immediately. Such is life,
"live and learn" hopefully.
RB
_______________________________________
http://www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
