Clutch Slave Cylinder

One of the items to be done was replacing the clutch slave cylinder.  It leaked slightly when there was pressure (clutch depressed).  My slave cylinder has the hose screwed directly in.  The parts manual shows a banjo fitting, but I don't know why it is not on my car.  Lowell Brown's car (8855) was made three weeks after mine and his is also screwed directly in.  Perhaps Ferrari was short on parts that month?

Without a banjo fitting, removal of the slave cylinder requires blocking the clutch arm in the fully depressed position.  To do this, I used a couple of pieces of wood.  The first was a stick 26 1/4" long that would fit between the clutch pedal and the seat rail, thus holding the clutch depressed.  The second was a wedge that would jam between the clutch lever and the bell housing to keep it depressed.

The slave cylinder has to be removed by pulling it sideways from the bell housing.  However, the shaft that goes through the clutch lever can't be removed with the cylinder in place.  Further, with the shaft in place, the cylinder won't move out enough to clear the studs.  In the end, I found that I could remove the rear stud and then there was just enough play to get the slave cylinder off.  Here you can see the stud is loose and the flex required between the shaft and cylinder in order to remove the cylinder.

I wanted to put in the banjo fitting instead of having the hose screw directly into the cylinder.  However, I couldn't find the fitting although the banjo bolt is available.  So I ended up just screwing the hose into the new cylinder.

Since then, I had bought the banjo bolt and a generic banjo fitting that I planned on adapting.  My thought was to silver solder some tubing on the fitting.  Flare the other end and use a flare nut with the right thread to allow the hose to screw on.

But before I got around to modifying it, I found the proper banjo fitting.

So the next time I work on the clutch system, I can put it together like it should have been.