I've been in the car game for a long time, and I know a thing or two about what goes on under the hood, but it doesn't stop me from making the odd mistake. Okay, actually I make mistakes all the time, but who's keeping track?
Personality wise, I may not be the best type of person to be interested in mechanics. My motto in life may as well be: "All truth can be discovered by taking things apart", as well as, "Anything can be improved by taking it apart, cleaning, lubricating, then reassembling."
This is my way of discovering my world; it always has been. If I want to know how something works, or if I'm not satisfied with how something is functioning, I take it apart and put it back together. There is no better way to learn about things. If you want to know how your toaster works, take it apart. If you want to know how your car works, take it apart. If you want to know how your neighbor's pet cat works, take it apar.......uhhh...you get the idea. Don't ever leave your Ferrari parked somewhere where I'm in reach of my hand tools because I'll be busting the cylinder head off faster than your can say "Ravioli" to learn how they get such high VE values.
The problem is that (like most people) I'm about a thousand times better at taking things apart than I am at putting things together. This has gotten me into a lot of trouble. I can't tell you how many car projects I've completed and been left with extra bolts/screws/etc that didn't end up back in the car. Although slightly concerning, this usually overjoys me because I'm so happy for the weight reduction. Having extra bolts left over is synonymous in my mind with improving upon Honda's design. Obviously said bolts weren't important anyway.
I also seem to subconsciously believe that manuals and proper training are nothing but hinderances to efficiency. Thus, when I want to understand something or fix something right away, I rarely take the time to exercise the intellectual side of myself and read a book or manual on what I'm about to do. This is a recipe for disaster.
Enter my Master Clutch Cylinder.
I went to the auto wrecker and pulled a Honda MCC unit from a donor car that seemed to be in good order. I brought the MCC home, took it apart, lubricated it and put everything back together. As I was reassembling it I put everything back together in the order I had taken it off. Simple enough, right?
If you look at the picture below, you'll see that I've circled the piece that I put on backwards. It fits very nicely both ways, and if you put it on backwards, you even get less lash in the cylinder push-rod. Yipee! Lash and loose parts is usually a bad thing in the mechanical world, so I honestly felt that I had made an improvement. Boy was I wrong.
With the MCC reassembled I put everything back together on the car then started to attempt to bleed the clutch hydraulic system. Trouble is, the MCC wouldn't take on any new fluid.
Hmmmm...that's strange.
I pumped and pumped and pumped, but to no avail. The MCC would not take any new fluid from the reservoir. Convinced that I had gotten a bad MCC from the wrecker I reluctantly took the unit out of my car and called it a day.
It was at this point that I decided to check Honda's procedure for working with the MCC, and suddenly, all the lights came on. My little 'improvement' had rendered the MCC totally useless.
Actually, this particular MCC is briliantly designed; thanks Honda! If you ever have the chance to take one apart, do it. Whatever you do though, don't put the part circled below in red in backwards.
Had I read the manual, none of this would have happened. Apparently this is a lesson I will never learn; I once took the entire engine out of a car, changed the clutch, and put it all back in (and yes, I had bolts left over, and left a wrench in the engine that fell out at highway speed) only to discover that 10 minutes of work on the clutch CABLE would have solved everything. Whoops.
My happy ending: In the end, I got the MCC put together properly, and bled the system without difficulty.
