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Been slowly bringing up the reliability on my 79 SA. Finally decided to take it for a 3 hour drive up north, everything went fine. On the return trip home, when pulling out from the driveway I noticed my clutch pedal stopped working. Further investigation, i noticed what I believe to be the slave cylinder, right above the transmission bell housing, was dripping some fluid. I had CAA and managed to get it towed home so I was lucky there.
Replace the master and the hose, if its the original hose. They are cheap and when one goes the other is not far behind. You can get stainless hoses at Atkins. Also the 79/80 had a different thread pitch, so if you go for the stainless hose and hardline you will need to get the master/slave for an FB. I recently had to do this on my 80 as my hardline was unusable after disconnecting the old hose. Atkins helped me out and walked me through the parts I needed to get it done right.
Yes. Consider replacing clutch master cylinder and hydraulic flex hose at the same time.
This is what will happen:
Replace slave cylinder and bleed system,the nasty black fluid you can’t get out of clutch hydraulics will be pushed thru slave cylinder,contaminating it and shortening its life.
You won’t be able to get a decent clutch pedal after repeated bleeding,or
the master cylinder fails within(choose one)hours,days,weeks.
All these parts wear and age at the same rate and if reliability is what’s important,all clutch hydraulic components need to be replaced at same time.
I did not look at your link as to the actual part you listed but consider these parts make up a system that is in use every time you start out from rest and change a gear-and get more use than brake hydraulics that stop the car...
buy the best quality parts you can if you want the repair to last the longest.
Alright, I am on board with everything that has been said, however, looking through the diagram I have a couple more questions. Where would i source the hose (41380) and hardline (41370) from? Are these parts generic? Can i get more info on the thread pitch issue as well?
Atkins want 50 dollars to ship it to Canada. If i can get more info?
As a fellow Canadian, I can relate to the US dollar and shipping. Its brutal.
You should find your local Mazda dealer can get most OEM parts that are still available. if places like Atkins or Mazdatrix stock them, and googling them doesn't bring up "No Longer Available", its a 90% chance you local dealer can order for similar (or better) price.
Make sure to check your VIN, the thread change was somewhere in 79 as you can see in the parts diagram.
Googling 0304-43-820 for the flex line bring up enough hits that I bet it is available, call your local dealer and they can usually get in a 3-4 days with good pricing. I don't think you need to replace the hardline, just flush it out and make sure it is clean. Also check the threads and the flare end...
When possible, I try to stick to OEM Mazda for these types of parts. A new OEM master, slave, and flex line will last another 40 years.
An be careful with the bolts that secure the slave to the transmission. These can be seized pretty good and can get you into trouble. I would get plenty of thread penetrant on them.
Didn't mean to confuse. I had to do my hardline cause the ends were beyond repair after removing the softline. I opted for the FB version of all the parts to make it easier to get parts next time around.
Alright, I ordered a hose from my local Mazda dealer for $27 CAD. Unfortunately, to get the master/slave was super expensive through them, so i just ordered from rockauto, hopefully they don't mess up. I plan on posting some pictures of the process in case anyone else is searching for this type of repair.
Alright the repair went mostly flawlessly thanks to the help of everyone. Some general notes I'll include for anyone else looking to repair this system.
First it seems some aftermarket master cylinders have a slight variation to where the hard line goes in. The stock is angled to the left at 45 degrees it seems, where an aftermarket one may be 90 degrees instead, I had to gently message the hard-line in order to fit back in, but it wasn't too difficult, the hard-line looks a bit sloppy in this area as a result however. Pictured below.
Second I absolutely munched the hard-line nut on the other end. Lesson is don't buy cheap flare wrenches. I had to use a vice-grip to get it apart. I will probably replace the entire line in the future.
Last, I noticed when screwing in the aftermarket master cylinder I ran out of thread, and it wasn't able to fully secure it to the body of the car. I just ended up using some spare washers I found in order to space it out.
Nice solve on the input line to the Master.
FYI the reason it did not match yours is because you apparently have a very early production SA, and for the first few months they came with the JDM Master, which has the input line at an angle, with a matching hardline.
All later SAs came with the vertical input, and an input line to match. When you go to replace the damaged hardline (presuming you opt for a mazda part), you should source a good used late-model SA line, or buy one from Mazda if still avail.
07-06-20, 09:41 AM
Repairing slave cylinder questions 1979 SA
