help clutch slave cylinder

[idb]

where is da best place 2 get a clutch slave cylinder from ?? as half of mine is floating in my bell housing

[jazza15]

I'm glad you asked this question because I have had some experience with this.

First up, the story:
When i got my car, it turned out that the master cylinder had gone (despite a RWC being done prior to the purchase of the vehicle). So i figured the cheapest option was to buy a master cylinder repair kit from my local Holden dealer. It consists of everything but the bore/case... basically all the insides.
so I fitted it, went to bleed the slave cylinder and could not get it to bleed, even removed the nipple and still no fluid came out. but i figured it 'air bled' its self, (where all the air bubbles eventually naturally find their way to the reservoir), as I was able to drive it back up my steep driveway.

So a couple of months later, the master cylinder went (to my frustration!) and all the pieces fell into place.
As many of you would have heard, when you replace the master cylinder, you also replace the slave cylinder as a rule of thumb, as if the master cylinder has gone, then so has the slave cylinder (very likely). So with mine, as it was never fully/properly bled, the master cylinder would have been dry in parts and therefore prematurely wore out.

Ok, so my decision was to just bite the bullet and replace both of the whole units together and get it done by a mechanic as i was unsure about clutch pedal position in relation to the stroke of the master cylinder (Holden recommends that this not be changed - but it was too late for that as I had changed it the first time I did the master cylinder, which may have also helped it wear quicker).
I was in year 12, so I didn't want to, nor did I have the money to spend too much on this.

Here comes the moral of the story:
I SHOPPED AROUND.
I called my nearest Holden parts dealer, followed by the next closest and the next closest after that and so on. Each had different prices for the parts and the labour.
The dealer closest to me had a labour cost for the job twice as much of that of another Holden dealer in my region (NE VIC), ($350 compared to $175). The parts costs varied by up to $100.
So I called a local brake and clutch SPECIALIST and they gave me the cheapest parts cost and the labour cost was by far cheaper (which they later told me they under-quoted a bit, so their loss my gain on that one ) I also supplied my own brake fluid which they were happy for me to do. They were also happy to do the job if I got the parts from somewhere else (a Holden parts dealer near me originally quoted me a parts cost that was slightly cheaper than the local specialist, but when I called them back when I was organising the job they gave me a more expensive quote, which shows that they are either LIARS or just INCOMPETENT)
So I got the parts and labour for the job all for about the same price as the labour cost quoted at my local Holden dealer (about $350). I have all of the prices that I was quoted written down somewhere, but I couldn't find it when I actually needed it for this!
I feel that the job had been done a lot better than if I had taken it to a holden as these guys specialise in brakes and clutches. They are also a small business, so their operating costs are lower and therefore they mark up their prices less after buying them from the same supplier as holden (PBR I think?)

So yeah, SHOP AROUND, the prices for un-common parts like master and slave cylinders for VT's and onwards can vary quite a bit from place to place as with the labour costs.
My advise would be and I'm sure others would agree, would be to also replace the master cylinder if you are going to replace the slave cylinder, unless you have recently replaced it.
As for whether or not to go for a repair kit or a whole unit, I can not advise you on that. If the bore of your cylinder is smooth then it is start, but once again you can not be too sure.

I hope this helps, because it was a long one!

Jarryd

[idb]

cheers for the info mate pulll my box out and put it bac in yesteday b4 work i got a new seal kit from holden and re-did there seals and put it the slave cylinder back and bleed it but da clutch petal feel very soft but oldmate at work k reckons dat a execdy clutch is a lot lighter then a standard clutch so im pretty lost on what the go is