Lessons learned

["Rich Hirsch" <rhirsch@domain.elided>]

Lesson 1: If you have an ATE MC and you don't have a seal replacement kit
made by ATE, be prepared for the seals to not fit properly.
Buy only ATE rebuild kits for an ATE MC.

Lesson 2: Don't assume when you order a new MC that it will be a brand you
recognize like ATE or Bendix. Ask your
supplier what he's shipping. Go elsewhere if it's a brand you've never heard
of.

Details:

A friend's clutch MC in her '89 Spider had a slow leak. In preparing to
repair the MC, I ordered a rebuild kit
for her ATE MC from a Major Alfa Parts Supplier (MAPS). When it arrived, I
noticed it was an AKRON rather
than ATE, but I didn't think about it at the time as I recently rebuilt the
front brake calipers on my '78 Spider with
an AKRON seal kit and they seemed to work just fine.

Anyway, I removed the clutch MC from my friend's car and took it apart.
There was a rubber boot and three rubber
parts inside the MC that could potentially be replaced. The AKRON rebuild
kit only furnished the boot and two seals.
The rubber valve at the bottom of the bore was not supplied. So the old
valve would have to be reused. I was not
pleased by this, but decided to proceed anyway. I thought the old valve was
probably okay and, after all, if the rubber
valve needed to be changed it would have been included with the kit, right?

The next problem was inserting the piston into the MC barrel after the new
AKRON seals had been installed. The
seals were too big. After futzing with it for awhile, I was able to force
the piston into the bore. I guess I should have
recognized that there was a problem with having to use so much force to
insert the piston. I learned this later--the seals
held the piston in place so firmly that pumping the MC had no effect. The MC
return spring was just not strong enough
to move the piston to its "open" position. My pumping had no effect since
the piston sat at the bottom of the bore,
held tightly in place by the AKRON seals.

At this point I decided I should just replace the whole clutch MC and had
one shipped in overnight from the MAPS.

I guess I should not have been surprised, but when I opened the box the MC
wasn't made by ATE, Bendix, Benditalia,
or any other manufacturer I recognized. Not a real problem in itself, but
the replacement MC I received had a poorly formed
(square) reservoir without strainer. Not something I really wanted under my
hood. I thought I might be able to use the old
ATE reservoir to make it look better, but there was no way it would fit. (I
was able to use the ATE strainer.) (I guess one
reason for supplying the Brand X MC is that it comes with a reservoir, which
I think a replacement ATE MC never includes.)
Anyway, it installed easily, seemed to bleed okay, and works. It just looks
cheap. We'll see how long it lasts.

Rich Hirsch
St Louis MO
'67 Duetto
'78 Spider
'87 Milano
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