Clutch System - 2 questions

[BoyWonder]

Well, the Auto to manual is drawing to a close, most of the work is now just a few wires, interior, and fluid refill. A few questions though.

1) I bought a new slave cylinder, and it's not quite the same as the old one. It's a bit larger (don't have the specific sizes but I can get them tomorrow if they are needed). The potential problem I have with it is that it's "resting" point without any fluid in it is nearly all the way pushed out IE the indent where the metal dowel (for a lack of a better word) is near it's maximum distance from the inside. The old one sat the complete opposite - it had the place the dowel thing sat in all the way in the cylinder without any fluid. Basically, I am wondering if this will go away once fluid is in it, because it feels almost like in it's current state it's pushing the throwout bearing into the pressure plate. When I push it in, it feels like a spring action pushes it back out. Thoughts?

2) While I was beginning to bleed the clutch, I was attempting to loosen the bleeder valve on the dampener box and the top of the valve snapped off. I'm thinking of trying the clutch without it, but my question is how do I join the 2 lines that went into the box? I searched around and peole just said "remove it" without any real details as to how. I was thinking I could bend the line that goes in on the front of the box, but that's basically turning it all the way around 180 degrees, and I really don't want to crush the line and have to track down another line. Any tips/tricks/methods to this process are much appriciated.

Thanks again.

--Zach

[extheflow]

you gotta bend that line 180 degrees.just like it looks.just work it real slow with your hands and it'll be fine.or go buy a tubing bender if you want the professional look.and the slave cylinder is fine.it's like that so the release fork doesn't rattle around in there.