Series III Clutch and doors

I recently bought a 1983 88 inch Series III that was pretty tatty but seemed fairly sound overall. A few days after buying it the clutch went Kapoot and I have since been told that the master cylinder seals, which has been backed up by everything I have read. How easy are these things to replace?
With the part being so cheap I'd like to give it a pop myself but I have little experience of this kind of thing.

Also whilst the doors seem to fit fine they are tricky to shut properly. It takes some force to get them closed and the passenger one has a habit of slipping of the catch whilst driving. Would replacing the door handles/locks remedy this or is it more likely to be the top half of the door that is causing the problem?

Thanks for any advice.

Ian

try adjusting the door catches on the bodywork first,m master cyl is a piece of **** to replace

for the door it may need nothing more than a couple of washers behind the catch to increase the amount of catch in the slot.

Sweet. I bought this Landy with the intention of fiddling with it myself, so I guess I should put my mouth where my money isn't and get on with it...

I had a similar experience with a clutch M/C. It failed after three days of ownership. I found that the last owner had used oil in the system instead of brake fluid. As has been said already replacing M/C is easy and only costs about £20 but do look to see what has beeen used in the system as your slave cylinder seals may be on their way to failure as well.

ZD

Thanks ZD, I'll keep an eye on that.

It was in fact only my 3rd journey when the clutch suddenly lost pressure. It came back after a breif rest, which has made a number of people tell me it's most likely worn seals in the master cylinder.

Soon find out I guess...

Don't bother replacing the seal just replace the whole master cylinder is cheep and easy.
All doors need adjusting. Start by getting the Galvanized capping to line up, then fiddle with the catch.

Personally if I were you, I would buy Lucas Girling parts (if you're planning on keeping your Landy), and change the master cylinder and slave cylinder. A lot of people have changed the master cylinder with the slave going a short while afterwards. They're cheap to buy so at least you will know it's all good.

When changing the master cylinder, take the pedal box out. Just a few bolts from inside the vehicle.

It's a nice easy job to do.

dsj1979 said:

When changing the master cylinder, take the pedal box out. Just a few bolts from inside the vehicle.

Click to expand...

Excuse my ignorance but when you say pedal box do you literally just mean the metal plate in the cab directly behind the pedals? Is this to allow easier access to the underside of the engine?

Thanks everyone for your help so far

Ian Duggan said:

Excuse my ignorance but when you say pedal box do you literally just mean the metal plate in the cab directly behind the pedals? Is this to allow easier access to the underside of the engine?

Thanks everyone for your help so far

Click to expand...

The clutch pedal goes through the bulkhead. Where this is, there are some bolts or nuts, I think four. Take those off (from the cab), and the pipes to the master cylinder and you can take the whole pedal box out (which holds the clutch master cylinder). You'll need to do this to change the master cylinder. When swapping the master cylinders over, make sure you keep the same adjustment on the new as per the old. You'll see what I mean when you swap them.

Ah! Gotcha. I was looking at it thinking "how the hell do you get to some of those bolts?" but that makes a lot of sense.

Thanks for that.

Sorry to drag this old thread up again, but I've just got to the point of finishing off fitting the new master cylinder and it looks an awful lot like the outlet pipe to the slave cylinder won't actually fit in the new master cylinder. Like, it seems 3mm or so too fat.

Ummmm.... help?

some master cylinders accept a 3/8" thread whilst others are 7/16" thread, it sounds like you have the wrong master cylinder or pipe

You're right Stig, I checked the old one and it had an adaptor on it.

Thanks man, that was a big help.

Ian Duggan said:

You're right Stig, I checked the old one and it had an adaptor on it.

Thanks man, that was a big help.

Click to expand...

LOL! I know that problem. First time it happened to me, had me confused for bloody ages. I did another one yesterday, wouldn't go in, luckily remembered what happened before (nearly) straight away.

Yeah, that's getting scribbled down somewhere in the Haynes manual that's for darn sure...

Now buy a couple of the adapters, and keep them in your Land-ditty box!