For those of you that are interested, the brakes are fixed!
It all began Sunday afternoon, my first day off after a troublesome week of travelling around sussex with as little use of my brakes as possible. I can tell you, I've learnt more about whats possible with a car gearbox then I ever thought I would this past week! Thank god I have my brakes back again!
As I was saying, Sunday afternoon, I went out, spanner in hand to attack the Master cylinder. I'd already found which ones I needed and had them all set up ready to go. Removed the brake pipe which came away with ease, little bit of fluid came out as if to taunt me, as per normal. Undid the bolts holding on the earth cable and support, the rusty support came away, no worries at all. On to a winner!
I don't know how long that cylinder has been there, but I dare say it was joined to the servo sometime in the 17th century. My god I think I lifted the front of the car off the ground trying to remove it. At least I've found a good jack point! Anyway it wasn't moving so I reassembled the whole thing and had a good long think about my life decisions buying a classic.
Monday morning I went out fresh faced and ready to go again, WD40 in hand and a boiling cup of water in the other. I loosened everything up and wiggled it about a bit and scraped the worst of the scum off the cylinder. After pouring more WD40 than I care to admit uselessly over the body of the cylinder and boiling hot water over it too, I began shoving everything in my toolbox between the cylinder and the servo and hammering it in.
Several screwdrivers, chisels and files later, there was an almighty crack and the cylinder simply pulled away. For those of you that have seen the film '127 hours', that roughly resembles my feelings when I finally removed the cylinder from the servo.
The evidence was obvious. The amount of rubbish sitting in and around the piston was monstrous. Here is the Master cylinder face, with what I can only imagine is 40 years worth of road grit:
Luckily enough for me, none of it had damaged the cylinder. Everything was beautifully smooth inside, and some methylated spirits later brought everything up great:
I refitted the cylinder (after cleaning up the servo area in general) and bled the brakes, which I must say in itself was quite a challenge! Lots of white fluid came out which led me to believe I could do with changing the whole brake fluid system, but that is for another day. My brakes are now fantastically high on the pedal and responsive. One question I do have, on the drivers side, where exactly is the bleed nipple for the rear?!