At 01:36 PM 10/16/04 -0600, Ken Pounders wrote:
>"I am installing a new clutch slave cylinder. Neither the old one nor the new one look like the one in the manual."

The manual shows the configuration of the clutch slave cylinder used on very early production MGA, the first 1667 cars only. Those had two side ports and a banjo fitting to change direction to connect the hose at the end. Beginning with car number 11768 in January 1956 the slave cylinder was changed to have one side port and one end port, and the banjo fitting was deleted.

>"The one I am removing has the main hydraulic line attached to the front of the cylinder with the bleed valve on the side."

That is correct for all cars after January 1956, and can be retrofit to earlier cars.

>"The new one looks the same as the old one but it was delivered from the parts house with the bleed valve installed in the front port leaving the side port for the main hydraulic line. Which is correct? Or does it matter?"

Both ports have the seat machined for the bleed nipple, so they are functionally interchangeable for different applications. The bleed nipple being shipped in the end port is a packaging solution. If it was installed in the side port it would poke a hole in the side of the box, or the box would have to be larger with an internal packing piece. There is no problem with the part. Just put the bleed niple in the side port and it's ready to install on the MGA.