McLeod Master Cylinder Assembly Installation Tips



The new master cylinder does not comes with a new roll pin to hold the hose in, so be certain not to loose the one from the stock cylinder.

Reservoir hose issue:
On my '95 Z28, the clutch fluid reservoir uses 3/8" hose. The MC assembly sent to me had a 1/4" hose fitting on it, so the hose wouldn't fit. LS1 cars may use a 1/4" hose instead, I don't know...

Suggestion:
McLeod should ship the MC with the 1/4" installed and a 3/8" 90* brass hose adapter loose in the box to cover all years of 4th gen F-body cars and make this a universal 4th gen MC kit.

Place a note in the instructions to install the other fitting with teflon tape or pipe thread sealer while paying close attention to the proper orientation of the hose barb. That orientation counts, and the new fitting should be "clocked" the same as the one McLeod installed at the factory.

I went to 4 parts and hardware stores and was unable to locate the correct brass fitting today (Sat.) and none of the big plumbing supply houses are open around here on the weekend, so I had to "invent" a interim solution.

I ended up hacking the 3/8" line 2" below the reservoir and used a plastic barbed 3/8" to 1/4" hose adapter that may/not be long term DOT3 compatible. I then ran 1/4" fuel line from the hose adapter down to the MC assembly.

That all worked fine, but I have to replace the plastic hose adapter with a brass one Monday, as I don't trust the plastic one to live long term in DOT3 fluid. Including the fitting would have saved me 90 minutes of driving all over the place to dig up an adapter.

Assembly Tip:
The MC is held onto the firewall by a U shaped "bolt" that is threaded on both ends. The U bolt is purposefully wider than the holes in the MC and firewall so the factory guy can use the spring tension to hold the MC in place until some other guy installs the interior nuts. Works great when there is no engine or brake vacuum reservoir in the way.

That's a serious problem when retrofitting the MC however, as you can't get enough force to compress the threaded ends of the U bolt together to fit in the holes due to the awkward location of the MC.

LJ used a vice to compress the U bolt so that the threaded ends fit into the MC holes w/o having to compress the bolt ends together. He "snuck up" on the correct spacing by compressing the U bolt a little, test fitting and then compressing the bolt in the vice again until it fit correctly.

Matt Gork was in the car and threaded the nuts onto the U bolt ends while LJ held the bolt in place to keep it from backing out.

That's about all I can think of other than burp/bleed the assembly over and over and over per the Helms until bubbles stop showing up in the reservoir. My Centerforce clutch now releases near the top of the pedal travel - life is good, at least until I crawl under the car to fix another exhuast and oil leak :)

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