[DeTomaso] Clutch masters (was: pizza car)

MikeLDrew at aol.com MikeLDrew at aol.com
Sun Apr 22 14:22:41 EDT 2012


In a message dated 4/22/12 9 37 59, cengles at cox.net writes:


>   I am bringing two cars, too. 
> 

>>>Lori and I were tentatively planning on bringing both cars (although it 
seemed a bit extravagant, with $5 a gallon gas and 800+ miles each way).   
Fate intervened at the last minute.   Before I got to know her, Lori's car 
was equipped a few years ago with one of those junk "DeTomaso" clutch master 
cylinders.   These are the new ones that some of the vendors carry, which 
have "DeTomaso" cast into the housing, making one think that they are genuine.  
 They are most emphatically NOT Italian however--their lineage is shrouded 
in mystery.

http://www.poca.com/index.php/gallery/?g2_itemId=36135

These things are notoriously unreliable.   Two years ago at the POCA Fun 
Rally, Larry Stock and his guys were kept busy working all day, as two or 
three of them failed that weekend alone!

Later at the SEMA show, Larry bumped into another vendor and was grumbling 
about them, saying that he had a huge box filled with these junk master 
cylinders that he had sold and had to take back because they had failed.   The 
other vendor said, "I bet my box is bigger than yours is!"

Getting an original one isn't necessarily the solution either.   Several 
years ago, I sourced a NOS clutch master from another vendor, for a European 
owner.   When he went to install it in the car, it didn't work.   Considering 
all the effort to install it, that made him less than happy.   He took it 
back out and took it apart and found that the bore had rusted and pitted 
while sitting on the shelf, and then the seals were torn when he cycled the 
pedal the first time.   Into the trash it went.   (And the vendor wouldn't 
refund his money or exchange it for a new one, unless he returned it to the USA, 
which would have been almost as expensive as the cost of a replacement, plus 
he'd already thrown it into the trash--so the customer wound up eating the 
cost of the part, plus the shipping--he eventually got a new, proper 
replacement from Roland in Germany).

Fortunately, some vendors still sell quality stuff.   I believe that Marino 
at Pantera East sources his master cylinders from the same Italian source 
as Roland does.   I phoned him and he had one on the shelf--in fact he had 
them both with, and without reservoirs.   The reservoirs don't go bad (well, 
except that the reservoirs on the junk masters are non-original and they 
typically leak!).   A couple of years ago, I had a NOS reservoir in the Ford box 
and had already put it on Lori's car to replace the new one that was 
leaking, so by buying the reservoir-less unit from Marino, she was able to save 
some money.   She'll transfer the reservoir over from the junk master and be 
back on the road--but not until after we get back from Phoenix.

The cost of Marino's replacement master cylinder, without the reservoir, 
was just about double the cost of the junk master cylinder, which comes with a 
(leaky) reservoir.

Quality ain't cheap.   But quality is quality, and if Lori is going to go 
through the agony of changing her master cylinder (and believe me, *she's* 
going to go through it while I act as coach and cheerleader!), she's only 
going to want to do that once!

FWIW I have a proper Italian clutch master on my car and it's been going 
strong since it was installed in 1994.   Let's hope it stays that way!

Mike


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