Last week I replaced the master cylinder twice on my '78 300D and I'm about to do it a third time. The first was the original; which was bypassing at the rear seal and dumping brake fluid back into the booster, and the second, a seemingly good quailty rebuilt unit from my local Napa store. The first replacemet lasted a day before leaking out of the front plug. I replaced it again with a second Napa rebuilt that has lasted for a week but now appears to be bypassing the piston and leaking back into the booster again. Grrrr ... this is boring and besides ... it's giving my brake booster a bad case of indigestion which I'm certain it can ill afford.

I'm retired on disability with a fixed income. Prices are ungodly high for a new cylinder and even the rebuild kit is way up there close to a hundred bucks. I'm fairly certain that cylinder I removed first is the ORIGINAL cylinder from my 150K car since it is painted black like the booster (and not bead blasted clean as a replacement would be). My dilema: should I take a chance and rebuild my own (presumably good) core to save a few bucks OR should I scrap that idea and just pop for a new one OR should I tell Napa to keep tryin' cuz the third time's a charm? Something else? I'm reminded of the man who took big steps to save his 50 dollar shoes ... only to end up splitting his 100 dollar pants.

Having owned auto parts stores in the past, I'm somewhat simpathetic to the fact that the pool of cores a rebuilder has to work with in this case are 30+ years old now and therefore may be of questionable value for rebuilding purposes ..... but geez ... this is ridiculuous ...... tired of my whining? Who has any ideas?

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78 300d 158k driver
80 300d 200k fixer
80 300d parts car
98 Cherokee 240k

" I know for certain that someday while parking or un-parking my Jeep Cherokee, I'm gonna' either pull the headlight switch right outa' its dashboard OR stomp its hood release lever clean offa' the kick panel. It's just a matter of which will happen first."