Someone's idea of modern cost reduction. This is the stuff that makes replacement parts non-original so the standard rebuild parts cannot be used.

On 3/22/2017, BRIAN PADDON wrote:
"I fitted a replacement slave cylinder, Delphi(Lockheed), and bled the system. After a few forward and reverse moves on the drive it became difficult to select reverse. I then found fluid pouring out the cylinder. I have now removed it and taken apart to find the seal and spring are different to the Lockheed original. See attached. I notice that the seals are thicker lipped than the Lockheed and do not seat in the same way into the spring cup. I have probably only driven about 60 miles since rebuild and had the usual problems trying to bleed the clutch. This has only just happened but from my pictures on the thread you can see the wear on the repro aluminum piston. Do you think it better to reuse the original seal and cap/spring in place of the Delphi ones and because of this re-occurrence is there likely to be something else causing the seals to leak. I wonder whether there is something wrong with the slave push rod, pushing the piston sideways in the bore and allowing fluid to leak? I have fitted a Hi Gear 5 speed conversion to my 1600 motor" -- Regards Brian

I see where they are going with the first one, reforming the spring to replace the plastic seal expander. That looks like it should actually work (if it was the correct length). No telling if the replacement seal is same or different from the original issue part, so these parts may need to be replaced as matched sets. My experience with such non-standard replacement parts is that there will most likely be no repacking parts available, so the whole assembly has to be replaced if (when) it will leak later.

The second one is more common in appearance, but the metal pusher can appears to NOT be a seal expander. This may work if the seal cup has a thicker lip to maintain contact with the cylinder wall. Again, likely no repacking kit available, so when you install one of these you can forget about ever repacking it in the future. We are getting deeper into the throw away age when we will not be able to repair such things.