A year ago I had a mechanic switch my auto to a manual. Since then nearly everything he did has had to be redone and he has also been fired from the garage he worked at due to an unrelated (and undisclosed) incident.

A few months ago, the linkage that connects to the pedal broke. I replaced the clutch master with one from AZ. Two days ago it bent in exactly the same place the other one broke, where the piston rod connects to the link that attaches to the pedal.

It looks like the mechanic used an existing hole for the MC(I'm pretty sure it's the right one), but I'm not sure he drilled the two holes that hold the MC to the firewall in the right places. Anybody have any idea how I can stop trashing master cylinders? Pictures of a properly installed MC from inside the car that show both bolts would be super-helpful. Thanks!

I swapped hydraulics into my 83...

The master cyl went almost right into the hole left by the rubber boot thing for the push rod. I had to enlarge it very slightly downward and (I think) toward the center of the car, and of course, drill the 2 holes for the U-bolt; very minimal. IMO, pretty hard to screw up. I'd look elsewhere for the cause of your issues.

Sounds more to me like you have the wrong pedals in your car. The whole pedal assembly for the hydraulic system (84-up) is different from the mechanical one (82-83).

Take a good look at yours; maybe snap a pic and print it out; and go to the boneyard and compare it to a hydraulic car. If yours is different, get the WHOLE assembly. The big bracket that holds them, both pedals, the pivot bolt, and (IMPORTANT) the 2 little braces that go from the pivot bolt down to the master cyl U-bolt.

Ahhh...This explains a few problems...

The other issue that arose shortly after I got the car back was that the sheet metal screws holding the master cylinder to the firewall stripped out, leaving me with a MC not attached to anything but fortunately close enough for me to push the car home. So this U-bolt I don't have, and of course then I don't have any braces either. I'm guessing that the hydraulic system was the same for V-8 and V-6 cars? There was a V6 stickshift locally a few months back that was relatively intact...

Ummm, Houston, we have a problem....

Yes AFAIK there is no difference between V8 and 6-cyl in any of that.

Sounds like maybe a trip to the buzzard to strip a carcass should be your first order of business. Get EVERY SINGLE PIECE that you can see that's any different from what you've got, and go from there. Like I said, snap a (digital) pic, print it out, take it with you, and compare; and get anything that doesn't match. And, any OTHER thing that those things touch, just for good measure.