201 clutch slave cylinder swap and post mortem

[Duke2.6]

Well, now I'm an "expert". A big thanks to Greg and hanno for the helping hand!!!

I broke the B-nut loose with a Mac 12" wobbly extension and a 12mm crow foot tubing wrench. Piece of cake! The wobbly extension allowed the crow foot tubing wrench to properly engage the flats of the B-nut with no tilt angle. The toughest part was pushing the new slave into position and getting the mounting bolts started.

I found the bleeding procedure in the Haynes shop manual - makes perfect sense. After about twelve to fifteen pumps of the RF caliper, I closed the slave bleed valve to try the clutch, and voila! It's nice when something works. Thanks for the tip, guys. I looked through the Haynes manual again, and there it was. If it wasn't for your hint, I'd probably still be pumping the SOB trying to get a pedal. Being as how I also scheduled a brake flush for today, I completed that task before pumping fluid into the clutch system, so the fluid was fresh and clean

Now for the interesting post mortem. The clutch slave pushrod was badly worn on the end - at least and eighth of an inch, which is one reason why the clutch grapped right off the floor and sometimes dragged unless I pumped it up, being as how it was seeping. The bore looked to be in good condition with just a spec of rust at the back end near the bleed valve. Bienniel brake fluid flushes pay off.

I'm glad I don't have the clutch disk checking tool as it probably would have told me the clutch disk was worn out when it was really the slave pushrod that was worn.

Any of you guys ever pulled out a clutch slave with a severely worn pushrod?

BTW the clutch engages so high now that it seems to have almost no freeplay, but I'm sure it's okay. I just have to get used to that "as new" feeling again.

Duke

P.S. Thanks also to Phil at Fastlane for quick parts delivery. The Teves slave (which has the same Mercedes part number in the cylinder casting as the original) was less than half the dealer list price!

[Greg in Oz]

Duke,

Thanks for the update and pleased to hear that you got it sorted. As yet I have not had to do a slave on a 201 (hopefully I won't have to). Interesting what you mention about pushrod wear. When I first realised I had a problem with my clutch the first thing I did was to make the tool to check for clutch plate wear. That actually prevented me replacing the clutch (which was OK) and looking to the hydraulics for a problem. I was also fortunate to be advised by a friend of the bleeding procedure in the early Haynes manuals. Strangely, neither of my Haynes manuals (for the 201 or 124) mention this procedure, instead stating that a pressure bleeder is required. Regarding the clutch engagement point on mine, I guess it is fairly high (although nothing like when it had the master cylinder problem that would cause slip when hot). It certainly does not need to be mashed into the carpet to disengage.

Greg