Cleaning up master cylinder reservoir

Ron Hall

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Nov 14, 2018
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310
Location
Arkansas
Trying to clean up brake system. I sucked most of old fluid out but there is
some black gunk in the plastic resovoir. I got some of it with cutips. Drive out the pins and clean the resovoir before flushing? Good idea or bad. I should be able to get new grommets. I had a caliper stick yesterday. I had tried shortcut and do a partial flush when i did my hurry up brake job. I just hate to bring the sludge thru the system to purge
 
For $18 Amazon will sell me a new resovoir with both grommets. It is made by Cardone. That might be better than trying to clean it. Anybody used on if these?
 
For $18 Amazon will sell me a new resovoir with both grommets. It is made by Cardone. That might be better than trying to clean it. Anybody used on if these?

You should do a search and read some of what @mrblaine has to say about Cardone.

Given everything I've read from Blaine about Cardone, I would avoid them like the plague. From what I gather, their parts are complete shit quality and wouldn't be something you'd wish upon your worst enemy.

I'm sure Blaine would have some lovely things to say about one of their master cylinders :ROFLMAO: (sarcasm)
 
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I would shove a rag in there (tightly wadded up) and move it around aggressively as best you can. My guess is if you do that, you'll get all the gunk out, and then you can fill it with fresh fluid.
 
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You should do a search and read some of what @mrblaine has to say about Cardone.

Given everything I've read from Blaine about Cardone, I would avoid them like the plague. From what I gather, their parts are complete shit quality and wouldn't be something you'd wish upon your worst enemy.

I'm sure Blaine would have some lovely things to say about one of their master cylinders :ROFLMAO: (sarcasm)
I wouldn't be opposed to trying a reservoir from them. It just holds the fluid and it just has to not leak. Moving fluid, putting it under pressure, or anything else to do with fluid except hold it still I won't touch.
 
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I wouldn't be opposed to trying a reservoir from them. It just holds the fluid and it just has to not leak. Moving fluid, putting it under pressure, or anything else to do with fluid except hold it still I won't touch.

I ordered the reservoir. I will keep the original until we see how it goes. I will report back after I get it installed and all the lines purged of the dirty fluid. The jeep roads in Colorado are slow to open this year because of heavy snow and slides.

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You should be good with the Cardone reservoir. However, I'm with @mrblaine on this one. The rest of there stuff is not what it used to be. Can't tell you how many jobs have had to be redone after using any of their fluid moving products. Even had a couple problems with their pcms the past couple years
 
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The new one went right on and is pretty and clean. Shown in the last photo. Fit was good. Now to get that dirty fluid out of the system. One exception was losing a pin that popped out before I was ready and could not be found. I looked for two hours in the gravel and frame before driving to Cortez for a replacement from the great hardware store. Hint: Have an assistant hold the pin on the back side as you tap it out. They will squirt as they leave the metal.

Hard to see all the goo in the original from the first photo. I had removed all I could reach with a cutip. If I was at home I might have removed it and really washed it out. Rv camps aren’t very conducive to cleaning and blowing out. Also 13 year old gromnets might be a problem.
8A4E47FD-642F-4A41-87E8-37170723D92F.jpeg
2D489E73-19B3-492E-927B-E112395842E0.jpeg
 
The new one went right on and is pretty and clean. Shown in the last photo. Fit was good. Now to get that dirty fluid out of the system. One exception was losing a pin that popped out before I was ready and could not be found. I looked for two hours in the gravel and frame before driving to Cortez for a replacement from the great hardware store. Hint: Have an assistant hold the pin on the back side as you tap it out. They will squirt as they leave the metal.

Hard to see all the goo in the original from the first photo. I had removed all I could reach with a cutip. If I was at home I might have removed it and really washed it out. Rv camps aren’t very conducive to cleaning and blowing out. Also 13 year old gromnets might be a problem. View attachment 104596View attachment 104598
Is the cap of the same design? Need to know for using cap for power bleeder.
 
The new one went right on and is pretty and clean. Shown in the last photo. Fit was good. Now to get that dirty fluid out of the system. One exception was losing a pin that popped out before I was ready and could not be found. I looked for two hours in the gravel and frame before driving to Cortez for a replacement from the great hardware store. Hint: Have an assistant hold the pin on the back side as you tap it out. They will squirt as they leave the metal.

Hard to see all the goo in the original from the first photo. I had removed all I could reach with a cutip. If I was at home I might have removed it and really washed it out. Rv camps aren’t very conducive to cleaning and blowing out. Also 13 year old gromnets might be a problem. View attachment 104596View attachment 104598
The new one went right on and is pretty and clean. Shown in the last photo. Fit was good. Now to get that dirty fluid out of the system. One exception was losing a pin that popped out before I was ready and could not be found. I looked for two hours in the gravel and frame before driving to Cortez for a replacement from the great hardware store. Hint: Have an assistant hold the pin on the back side as you tap it out. They will squirt as they leave the metal.

Hard to see all the goo in the original from the first photo. I had removed all I could reach with a cutip. If I was at home I might have removed it and really washed it out. Rv camps aren’t very conducive to cleaning and blowing out. Also 13 year old gromnets might be a problem. View attachment 104596View attachment 104598
Is there a trick to removing the reservoir?

I'm replacing the hoses and calipers on my '06 Rubicon. The bottom of the reservoir is coated with really cruddy residue and I'd like to get it out before refilling and bleeding the system. The retaining pins came out without too much trouble but the reservoir is seated really tight. I can lever each end with a screwdriver far enough to see daylight around the grommets but I'm hesitant to use too much force without knowing how it's attached to the master cylinder.

Is there anything I should be careful not to damage? Or is this just a matter of applying brute force?

TIA
 
Is there a trick to removing the reservoir?

I'm replacing the hoses and calipers on my '06 Rubicon. The bottom of the reservoir is coated with really cruddy residue and I'd like to get it out before refilling and bleeding the system. The retaining pins came out without too much trouble but the reservoir is seated really tight. I can lever each end with a screwdriver far enough to see daylight around the grommets but I'm hesitant to use too much force without knowing how it's attached to the master cylinder.

Is there anything I should be careful not to damage? Or is this just a matter of applying brute force?

TIA
Brute force worked for me, used big screw drivers as wedges. Just be careful as l got a face full of brake fluid even after removing fluid with a syringe and some tubing. I used a piece of duct tape to capture pins. Old reservoir was cleaned out completely with dish soap and water. I did install a new Cardone reservoir and grommets just because original one was a little stained after 120K miles of use.
 
Brute force worked for me, used big screw drivers as wedges. Just be careful as l got a face full of brake fluid even after removing fluid with a syringe and some tubing. I used a piece of duct tape to capture pins. Old reservoir was cleaned out completely with dish soap and water. I did install a new Cardone reservoir and grommets just because original one was a little stained after 120K miles of use.
Yessir. Brute force and 2 screwdrivers did the trick.

The reservoir flew a few feet coming off but I did manage to avoid the unfortunate brake fluid shower. o_O

Thanks for the tip. And the warning!
 
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