HRPT Prep 3 - Hydraulic Clutch (Part 1)

Today, I began the installation of a Modern Driveline (MDL) hydraulic clutch system.  The Light Foot (LF) kit (# MD910-012C) I purchased, includes a Willwood 260-6088 clutch master cylinder, billet fluid reservoir, unique adapter for the stock pedal, and all the hardware.  The second part I purchased from them is a Tilton 6000 series slip-on, throw-out bearing setup for my T-5 which also works on TKO, TKX, and Toploader transmission.  I didn't realize it at the time, but neither kit came with a hydraulic line to connect the master cylinder to the Tilton throw-out bearing so I'll need to get one of those.

The bracket which mounts to the inside firewall and connects to the clutch pedal took a little time.  Most of the time was spent test fitting it to the firewall, test assembling, and making sure that the way I planned to install it would not result in any binding of the linkage.  After quite some time, I realized there was simply no way to install it so that the master cylinder was perfectly straight up and down.  Once my OCD allowed me to look past that, I drilled the holes to mount it and moved on with the install.

It didn't take long to realize that the clutch master cylinder contacted the brake lines I made just a few months ago.  In order to get it to fit properly, I had to remove the brake lines and bend a new set that cleared the clutch master body and ports.  I made the first line without any trouble on the first attempt.  However, the second brake line was a very frustrating effort that resulted in the following pile of incorrect brake lines.  It took several attempts to get the second line correct.  There were many lines bent wrong, one just a 1/4" too short, and two instances where I fared lines without a fitting.  In the end, these lines are far better looking than the set I quickly put together last time.  

Since installing the new WIllwood brake master cylinder, the system has seemed just a bit softer than before.  I decided to take this opportunity to bleed the brake master cylinder again since I had the lines off.  I ran a few lines from the port into the top reservoir, setup my camera to video the master, and then slowly pumped the brake pedal.  I went through a total of 50 depressions of the pedal since I couldn't see anything and didn't want to do it again.  I later checked the video and saw few bubbles aside from the air in the lines I looped over.  I guess I'll know for sure once I beed the whole system again and try it out.

I was stopped out for the rest of the day because I don't have a second set of hands to install the clutch master and I didn't want to crawl under the car to remove the transmission this late.  I'll get the rest done here in the next few days.