The current 'cast' arms will not take heating with a torch as the resulting crystallization will really weaken the arm!  It used to be the way to cheat when the mechanical components wore a little bit.... The adjustable pushrod that I have on mine accomplishes the same thing, without having to use a torch!

Bending the pedal itself should only be done to correct one that is damaged.... too much stroke will exceed the mechanical travel of the master cylinder, so that will lead to other problems eventually!

Jemel, heat and bend the clutch arm not the pedal...

Deb

Mal and Steve.... Try it.... the pedal does COME UP!  When the master is all the way down on the bulkhead, part of the stroke is lost!  I can't see how Steve's issue with the gate miss-alignment would be all that common.... It's just a stub shaft out the diff that works in very linear fashion... If you have to screw around with sideways tweaks to shift it, the shift housing or rods are operating in a bind, AND the roll pins in the coupler are knackered!  I think I show my shifter going thru the gears with a short-shift kit... I know Steve doesn't like them, but properly set-up, all my gears are within about a 5 or 6 inch circle (at the knob!).

You can see from my video that I have maybe a half inch of play at the pedal.  Total pedal stroke is about 4-5 inches, and you just can't have 25-40% of that be free-play!

Yes, taking a torch to the (removed!) pedal and bending it to increase travel could work, but you do have to be careful with the stop nuts and not over extending the slave piston travel. A clutch as high as the brake pedal, will have too much stroke, and hydraulic binding is a possibility.... the master cylinder stroke is not that long! 

It all helps but you need to take care of the real problem as i posted your clutch is not adjusted correctly and you may or may not have some worn parts if you have that much free play. Just because the car is low mileage you have to remember none of the pivot points are lubricated so they wear out quickly.

Dimitris:  the Mini enthusist who did my car's restoration about 6 months ago said:

"I popped the engine apart and gave everything a good clean and inspection. Bores, bearings and transmission were in incredible condition".  The car's restoration was documented at - //www.minimania.com/msgThread/114354/1/1/New_Project__1979_Mini_1000__Barn_Find_

Last oil (Castrol GTX 20/50) and filter change was a couple weeks ago.  The car currently has about 46K miles on it.

I noticied today that with 1.5 to 2.0 inches of free play in the clutch pedal, I've got to push the pedal all the way to the floor for a smooth shift.  BTW, I still have one layer of carpeting in place at the spot where the clutch pedal arm meets the firewall.  Would that one thickness of carpeting make any difference?

FB

Just had this same problem on a 1980 Mini 1000. Canadian Mini.

The worn clutch slave piston arm .... two ways to fix it. Heat the clutch arm with a torch and bend it toward the engine to change the angle....or lengthen the shaft that goes in to the clutch slave. By using a  cheap socket that fits inside or by threading the rodshaft and making it longer.

It's inexpensive and it works...

Deb

Follow the video Jemal posted for the clutch adjustment. I personally like to do it with the return spring disconnected so i can feel the free play better, make sure there is enough clearance on the big nuts when the pedal is fully depressed. With regards to the 1.5 to 2 inches play it is too much compared to the 3/4" you had, you are now making the dissengaging worse with this amount of play. As long as everything seems to be moving correctly and you are getting a reasonable amount of throw when the pedal is depressed (check the video) i would take a look at the pivot wear points under the hood, a small amount of wear in these parts including the end of the arm translates to a lot of decreased throw when the pedal is depressed. Try and pump the pedal a few times before engaging a gear and see if it improves.

I think you are beating the wrong dog. I'd take a hard look at the rod change shifter. I installed a 3/4 bis spring on my car. First is hard to get and as you say going to second helps. I'm thinking the H pattern is a lazy H with a right hand slant. I have to pull over against the spring and back for 2nd then if I push straight forward it will not go loosen grip and allow to go forward and to the right a little and it slips right in. I recently rebuilt 10 rod change shifters and non of them are in my car. I also will not reinstall the bias spring. Steve (CTR)

Mal, I'm not seeing the geometry there either. And yes i cut and weld the clutch pedals to come almost as high as a brake. 

was the tranny ever rebuilt? last oil change or type of oil? i make a guess your first synchro might starting showing its age...

Thanks Jemal, now I know why my master cylinders are shimmed up off the bulkhead.

I spent some time fiddling with the return stop/operating lever adjustment and I can now easily slide a .006 feeler gauge between the throwout stop screw and the operating lever with the clutch fully disengaged.  Before, I had about 3/4 inch of free play travel in the clutch pedal and now it's about 1 1/2 to 2 inches.  Is that about right?  I also should have mentioned that this "hard shifting" is more noticeable when the engine is cold and it does get better (easier) when the engine is up to normal operating tempature.  Again, there is no grinding sound from the gearbox and shifting into 1st gear IS better, though it still feels a little stiff.  Thanks for all your input.

Maybe i am reading this incorrectly Jemal but surely by pulling the master up it would cause the clutch pedal to go down not up thus decreasing the amount of pedal travel, if the clutch pedal had it's pivot point on the front/opposite side i could understand your theory. One of the weird things i seem to run across in Mini's is the way the brake pedal sits so high compared to the clutch, by modifying the clutch peadal to the brake pedal height it would resolve all these worn out component clutch problems.

Perfect explanation jedduh!  Yes that 78 should have a 4-synchro rod-change, and a Pre Verto clutch.  This topic sure comes up on a regular basis!  The trick with these clutches is to be sure you have a TINY amount of free-play for the throw-out bearing but NOT WASTE ANY PEDAL TRAVEL with excessive free-play! That means the mechanical parts CAN'T be trashed as explained above because that ADDS SLOP!

I've mentioned this to numerous people, but have not explained it here before... If the car has been converted to LHD it's likely that spacers were left out that should have been installed under the master cylinders on the bulkhead.... the left side does not have the dog-bone bracket adding thickness.  If the master is installed directly on the bulkhead, clutch pedal travel is REDUCED!  You can test this very easily... simply loosen the two half-inch nuts that hold the CLUTCH master so you have an eighth or quarter inch you can LIFT the master- no need to disconnect any lines or clevises - Then have someone lift it against the loose nuts while you watch the clutch pedal.... Odds are it will COME UP!  Walla... simply shim the master up to maximize available pedal stroke!  You can use the shims for conventional front-end alignment, or simply cut a slot out of a washer (to avoid having to lift the master all the way off the studs which will require undoing the difficult clevis under the dash!).

If you properly adjust the free-play (AND make sure your stop-nuts ARE NOT limiting travel!) that should have first gear working like it should!  By the way, the going-into-second-first-trick is a valid way that helps shift when the oil is cold or the gearbox is new.  It helps slow the shafts which must be brought to a stop from their turning at engine speed in order to engage first.  The synchro on first has the hardest job bringing the gear to a stop (assuming the car is stopped), so an iffy clutch will have the most difficult time with first gear!

A few people may not have seen me demonstrating the clutch adjustment and function on my own car.... here it is again:

//cooperroadmini.com/2013/05/06/by-special-request-clutch-adjustment/

Or the slave hose can collapse internally causing the fluid to not flow correctly. Have someone push the pedal and watch the movement then pump it a few times to see if the movement is greater that will narrow things down for you.

Are the throw-out stop and the clutch lever stop adjusted properly?

Sounds to me like a Combination of a few issues - mainly due to age and wear.

  All pivots points in the system need to be VERY tight no slop , no ovals no looseness. Start at the clevis pin from the pedal to the master cyl - Clevis is prone to wear. that will also wear into the Master Cyl rod and even into the pedal hole . Many times a new clevis pin will tighten that joint right up.

next out to the clutch - on the Wok - Cover...   The rod that the slave cyl pushes- also has a clevis pin- also prone to wear on both the pin and the rod.

On the end of the lever rod- into the wok- also wears - Larger pin there- along with the actual rod.

Slack among all the joints all combines together to not give enough clutch rod throw to effectivly push the rod far enough to disengage the clutch fully - thats where sometimes a double clutch pump will allow the rod to push just a few hairs farther and get that disengagmenet needed. 

Other possible tempoary solution- Extend the rod into the slave ( or adjustable Rod) get a bit more push.  Can and is a temporary bandaid to the problem.

next comes the hydrolic system - could be bleeding by bleeding down and on your first initial clutch push - not pusing fluid as efficiently as it shold- so the wear in the master and the slave could be not pushing the rods enough.... Second or multiple pumps- and better / easier gear selection then this points to a bleed back problem with the hydrolics.

Just putting it simply - Those are the most common areas for clutch operation issues. 

Great question! I had this problem on one of my old Mini's. I pretty much just sold the car on, not sure what it was. Someone told me that I needed to clean the area around the linkages, and inside the gear shift housing. This did not work for me, but you can try it.

My "new" 78' Mini 1000 with stock 998 engine and transmission is not as much fun to drive as I had expected.  In stop & go driving around town, it's physically hard to get the shifter into 1st gear from a stop.  Sometimes it helps to push in the clutch, shift into 2nd and then into 1st.  I've bled the slave cylinder and there is no air in the system.  The fluid resivour is full, and I even cut away the carpet where the clutch pedal arm meets the firewall for max pedal travel, but it's not a matter of gear grind or chatter going into 1st, only it's hard to push the shift lever into gear.  BTW, shifting 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd, and 3rd to 4th is no problem and down shifting is okay with a little clutch play. The car has less than 46K original miles on it.  Does this sound like a throwout bearing issue? Syncro issue?  I'd appreciate any input you might have. Thanks.

FB