Yeah, but not in the way you'd expect. Replacing the slave did not fix the problem, so I wasted another weekend practicing dropping the gearbox for nothing. My next step was to order another master cylinder (this time, from eEuroparts), and that did it! While installing it, I've noticed a lot of crud on the bottom of the brake fluid reservoir. I guess whoever installed the previous master at Beacon did not clean the fluid tank, and the master got plugged with this junk. I ended up removing the reservoir completely to clean it properly. Drained the whole system and filled it with fresh fluid. It's been two weeks, the clutch is doing fine so far.