DIY rebuilding Master, Slave, & clutch Master cylinders with kit

[epowell]

Hi Friends.
I am now preparing to go from Europe (land of cheap T3 parts) to Canada (land of expensive Vanagon parts). I am bringing a whole bunch of stuff over with me VIA HANDLUGGAGE.

Handluggage restrictions prevent tools longer than 7 inches, so that would mean an MC would not be allowed.
The other 2 hydrolic cylinders are shorter, but when searching for them (expensive even here), I found available super cheaply - these REBUILD KITS.

So I bought a few to take with me as an alternative to bringing the whole thing and risking have them rejected at airport security.

Does anyone have any experience with using these KITS to rebuild these cylinders? I find it really easy to rebuild front brake calipers with the KITS, and wonder if the difficulty level is about the same?

Any other considerations?

Thanks
Ed
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www.edwardpowell.com

[DanHoug]

rebuilding of the various cylinders and pistons depends completely on how pitted or corroded the bore and piston is. i've taken to trying to rebuild at first before replacement because the base parts are better quality than the new offshore alternatives.

so. one technique that has worked for me on the rear brake cylinder is to wrap emery cloth around a dowel, chuck the dowel in a drill, and polish the bore. they also make specific brake cylinder hones using either flat stones with an expanding spring or 'rabbit turd' ball hones sized for various brake cyl bores.

as i see various name brand brake seal kits like Ate, Bendix, come up for clearance sales, i buy them as they are often only a couple dollars each, take up little storage room, and can be a life saver to rehab a brake part.

pick up some of this stuff, easier to find in Europe... makes brake assembly parts operate very smoothly:

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-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[epowell]

So the point here being that if we rebuild our various cylinders BEFORE they start leaking, chances are their insides will not be corroded much and will nicely take the rebuild.

So since all of my cylinders are currently working fine, perhaps it would be prudent now to do a rebuild on all of them

I didn't know the rear brake cylinders are also rebuildable.... I just ordered a pair of the ATE ones with springs - they are small and less than $20 each so what the hell.

But for the MASTER CYLINDER my parts guy said the original van probably comes with one of 3 possible MC manufacturors: ATE, FAG, BENDIX, and I need to know this before I can order an MC rebuild kit. So, since the van is in Vancouver and I am in Czech I guess I'll have to wait on that, unless someone knows what maker of MC I most likely have??