master cylinder and torsion bar removal

[grovesa]

Hi

I am trying to remove my master cylinder, having read the technical notes on here and several threads. I see that you are meant to be able to lever the torsion bar out of the way. However i have tried and failed to do this.
How are people levering it? And against where

My other question is as I can't lever the bar out the way how do! I remove it? I have looked it up in my manual but am still not sure how to do this

Thanks for your help

[bmcecosse]

You can easily lever the bar out the way - just enough to slip the bolts out, one by one. Use a longer lever! It's too much work to take it off......

[grovesa]

I have tried varying lengths of lever, and even my longest lever I cannot move it enough to get the bolts out

[horologiumwatches]

If you slacken the bolts can you get enough movement to get a 1mm slotting disc behind the heads? Ive always managed to lever down the torsion bar without too much of a oroblem though. I do alwayd replace the bolts back to front, that way the nuts are behind the torsion bar instead. Makes it much easier next time. I know its not too clever risking the bolt ends rubbing the torsion bsf but ive never had one break yet!

[MarkyB]

I've used a short length of angle iron and a couple of G clamps to pull down the torsion bar in the past.
Must have had the gearbox cover off as one clamp held the iron and the other pulled the bar.

You do need good quality clamps though, I wouldn't try with Chinese ones.

[GreenGiant57]

I turned my bolts round, put a washer beneath the heads to pull the other end away from the torsion bars and then used thin locking nuts to secure.

[liammonty]

If you've got a coil spring compressor, that makes quite light work of moving the torsion bar far enough to get the M/C bolts out.

[Pikey]

What you need to remove the bolts is an axle stand, a piece of wood say 2x1" by about 6"ish long and a "g clamp".

Put the bit of 2x1" wood perpendicular across the chassis leg supported on one end by the axle stand. Then use the g clamp to pull the torsion bar down against the timber. Works fine.

Dont bother reversing the bolts, the heads were made thin for a reason..

To be honest removing those bolts is realitively simple, removing the brake pipe going towards the back brakes is more "entertaining"

Cheers

Steve

[millerman]

Is this of help?[frame][/frame]

[liammonty]

Dont bother reversing the bolts, the heads were made thin for a reason..

This is really good advice. I've done it on 2 cars, because everyone said it made no difference,and then took years to figure out where the horrible suspension knock was coming from. Of course it was the torsion bar hitting the m/c bolts. Rectified with the angle grinder, but would have saved a lot of annoyance if I'd put them back in the right way in the first place!