Easy way to remove brake master cylinder?

[mikeeech]

Title says it all... Is there an easy way of removing the brake master cylinder bolts that are buried away in the pedal box other than braking my arm in 3 places to get round the pedals and then only being able to turn the bolts by a quarter turn!

[black eclat]

I feel your pain.

I found it best to remove the seat and get comfortable under the pedals. Its a pig of a job whatever way you go about it.

[soldave]

Yeah, I had to replace the master cylinder about 6 months ago and it is a massive pain, only being able to turn the nuts about 1/4 turn each time. Once you've got it all the nuts off, it's still a pain to get out of the engine bay (I scratched the paintwork quite a bit getting it out).

Good luck with it.

[DaveyT]

For the nuts, try Chicago brand open ended ratchet spanners...great for those pesky manifold nuts on my esprit, too

expensive, but they've been a useful addition to my toolbox. The design also offers a certain "flexibility" between metric and imperial sizes IME

http://chicagobrand.co.uk/product/10-piece-metric-set/

[pbharcourt]

I find that if you take the throttle pedal out of the way it makes things easier, just twist the righthand nylon bearing 1/4 turn with a 17mm spanner and out it pops, you can leave the cable connected and just let it hang there.

Then i use a 3/8 sock set with long extension, deep 13mm socket and knuckle joint.

When you pull the servo out you need to put a bit of plastic between the edge of the servo and the inner wing and pull!

I cut the side out of an old plastic 5lt oil can to put between the two.

Not an easy job though!

Edited January 10, 2016 by pbharcourt

[mikeeech]

Not sure whether to thank you guys or not... Thanks for the reassurance that I'm not doing something arse about face. Thanks also for letting me know its going to be a drag!

[soldave]

Are you replacing the cylinder?

Good call on the bit of plastic. That way the inner wing won't end up looking like mine does

[mikeeech]

No. I'm stripping down for a respray however I have some parts on order from sj sportscars that have still not arrived yet. This means the offside front hub is off at the moment and the body is on bricks so I'm a little reluctant to get my full weight on it and get into the car as Michael suggests. Add to that I'm of an age now where eyesight is an issue so my glasses keep coming off and I lose sight on the nuts. 

[DaKa]

On my car, when I remove the off side wheel, there seems to be an inspection hatch about 1ft by 1ft that looks like it could be removed, approximately situated on the inner wing behind the top of the brake/accelerator pedals, is this normal?

[oilmagnet477]

http://www.safetyglassesusa.com/bf61.html

Get yourself a pair of these - problem solved!

Combined with a head torch, you would be unstoppable!