90Q slave cylinder removal

[David42U856]

I recently succeeded in removing the clutch slave cylinder on my 90 quattro and wanted to share the method I used.
Removal of the retaining spring pin was reasonably easy when using the correct sized flat headed drift, but removing the slave cylinder was another matter. Access is very limited and it's very difficult to get the required purchase on the casting to apply any rotational or axial force to free it. Copious amounts of WD40 and homemade release oil (50% acetone / 50% ATF as found in another thread) but still no success. I needed a tool which allowed me to apply significant force to break the joint between the slave cylinder and the gearbox housing. What I came up with was a threaded bar which can be screwed into the inlet port such that it makes contact with the spot-face of the casting thus providing a solid lever. I had a friend make one from solid 1" bar and, in parallel (because I was impatient), I made another using some stainless steel tube, threaded bar with the end re-threaded to the correct size, two nuts and some 1" lengths of hose which I used to centre the threaded bar in the tube. The tool is about 250 mm long with a 10 mm length of thread at one end to match the slave cylinder inlet port (M12 x 1.0). You want to avoid making contact with the machined seat in the bottom of the port so measure the depth and use a washer if necessary to ensure the tool makes contact with the spot-face first. Below is a photo of the two tools.
I hope this is helpful to some of you - when searching threads on this subject previously most suggestions indicated that the gearbox would need to come out! Not a job I was looking forward to.
css tool.jpeg

[David42U856]

Additional image showing tool installed

[slacky]

That’s great
Thanks for sharing

[tractor Dave]

Very good idea. Well done.

[SwallownAmazon]

The ingenuity of man - clever stuff.