You mean I have an accent? 

Oh yes, probably a few!  It used to be British, as I lived in Wales as a child... Then I lived in Baghdad (not the one in Arizona!) and talked English at home with Welsh Mother!  Then moved to Kansas at age 11 where my proper British got watered down.... teachers loved having me read out loud, as I was years ahead of my fellow 7th graders having attended the best private school in what used to be quite a modern and progressive country!  A couple of years later, got Californicated moving to Palo Alto where my father got his PHD from Stanford, then I relaxed a little moving to Santa Cruz where I went to UCSC. 

So yes, I guess I'm a little confused!  Enjoy my life story? 

Oh, and my brother and I came up with the idea for TOP GEAR in 1981 at Stanford, but, we didn't have video cameras (or even cell phones... yikes what the hell did we do all day?).  We would harvest cars from Saudi and Kuwaiti students after they were done with them, or wrecked them, (or to "fix" something), and put them to a "Dukes of Hazard" style test. We managed to actually jump a Plymouth Belvedere, but our launch ramp was sketchy, so it didn't land well! We did some early Toyota automatic transmission durability testing, driving at about 45 in the rain, slipping it into neutral, flooring the throttle, then forcing reverse such that the poor Corona 4-door was smoking it's tires backwards as it slowly lurched to a stop then backed up. It must have looked hilarious, but alas, no easy cameras to capture the fun! Arabs like Mercedes sedans, so it must have been quite a sight to see us "testing" respectable 4-door sedans around the Palo Alto area!  My girlfriend used to take dance lessons were Facebook is now located.... I bet you don't see Mercedes sedans doing donuts there now!  We were sure that if we could share the entertainment value of mercilessly flogging cars and making fun of  foreign cultures, all the top manufacturers would trip over themselves to send us the newest and most expensive cars to "test"!

Never did find out what happened to that Belvedere! We left it in the bushes at the side of the field where the 49ers used to practice in the early Joe Montana days! The wheels weren't exactly round.... 

Yes, you're right Ian. I did look up "cotter pin" Wikipedia link  

" Cotter (pin), in mechanical engineering a pin or wedge passing through a hole to fix parts tightly together." ( I remember those "cotters" on my early bikes. No split pins involved there.)

In North America (not just the US) "cotter pin" is most often used to describe a split pin, not "any old kind of pin". However, sometimes common or finishing nails or stiff wire are used as substitutes.

BTW, Jamal's video shows the Sears-type extremely long bent end needle note pliers you recommended.

 

 

I was going to point out that there's no "cotter" pin involved with Mini brake/clutch linkges... but found that the US use the term to describe any old kind of pin....

Pretty much all the pins I've seen used to hold the clevis pin in place have a circular end.  The best tool for removing this is some form of hook.  As long as you get the ends of the usual split pin reasonably together then a decent hook will allow you to reef it out... To remove the clevis pin I wiggle the pedal up and down while applying pressure to the non stoppered end of the pin. Once you have it partially withdrawn there's enough out the other side to get a decent grip with the needle nose pliars.  Sears make a nice long pair with a kinked end which helps as you don't need to get your hand so far up under the dash.

Cheers,  Ian

Jemal,

Where is your accent from? Seems to be a mix of, well, lots....

LOL

"I think that's a cylinder head"....lol...priceless

Oh, you WERE paying close attention!!  I think she was just being funny!  Yes, that was a rather early video, and she did get a bit distracted... you can hear me mumbling away under the dash as she's wondering around!

Recently needed to get up and under one of my mustangs dash. Used to be able to do it Alex's way. Not this old man. Really suffered lying on the uneven floor

Gettin old stinks

Peter

"I think that's a cylinder head"....lol...priceless

thanx jemal for the vindication. i'm pretty sure my level of discomfort stemmed

from the p/o's brilliant planning of welding the seat brackets to the crossmember.

turbodave, if only you were here.thanx for the info.i shall file it away.lol

To stop it spinning, simply pull the pedal skywards. This puts friction onto the pin (the stop when you pull the pedal up is the pushrod bottoming out in the master, not the pedal box itself). I do this job with a screwdriver only. Pull up the pedal, push the clip to straighten it a little with the screwdriver. Release the pedal, spin the pin around with the screwdriver to position it for the next bit of straightening, then pull the pedal up again to stop it moving... Finally, spin it around, push the pin forwards and out with the screwdriver, and reach in and recover it - or leave it in the channel... A new pin every time of course....

 

Yes, one of the notoriously difficult tasks on a Mini!  For me the trick that works is to partially depress the pedal, holding the clevis and cotter in a more favorable position, and most importantly, KEEPING THEM FROM SPINNING!!    Here's some action footage of me swapping them on a MOKE!

https://youtu.be/lxocKJOStsk

well alex, thankfully i won't need to do that.

thanx spitz. i'm familiar with those and definitely will use them.

Photo taken for an upcoming technical article. Yes, it's the passenger side instead of the drivers side, but the principle is still the same.

Getting in behind the radio and photgraphing the heater hose blanking plate nuts is even more difficult than doing the clevis pins !

These are what you need.

one of my biggest problems was the clevis pin kept turning and the cotter pin was spinning also.

i couldn't get a grip on the cotter pin with the needle nose pliers as the room to work in there

was mini-scule. perhaps little hands would have sufficed.

The worst one i had was when the pin was rusted onto the master cylinder rod end, i ended up buying a foot long Harbour freight vise (Mole) grip to wiggle it back and fort to get it to release. Although i have never tried it i was told to thread a fine pice of cotton or fishing line through the clevis pin and just pull it through, but once you have done this job a few times it is not that hard just a tad uncomfortable but that is what old Moke seat covers are for.

Regarding the R clips make sure they are not too long as they tend to rotate and will catch and release themselves, i have seen it happen and was asked "what's this off i found it on my floorboard" :-)

i will wash my mouth out with soap and stand in the corner.

after time out i will go back to working on dinsdale.

i aspire to be a better man in leiu of my transgressions.

+2 didn't care for the title myself.

Regarding removal of the pin I may not be as quick as Alex and Hugh in the removal of the pin but I use their techniques with quick results. On reassembly the cotter/split pin could be replaced with an R clip/hitch pin clip.

I have found that even more difficult than the removal of the brake master cylinder in the Mini is the removal of the master in a Morris Minor where the torsion bar blocks the removal of the bolts. With a night's sleep I was able to "MacGyver" a solution.

well, thanks for reading the thread anyway. i will use YOUR method of on your

back , legs out the door, seat removed... oh wait, i did do that , as i stated more

than once.perhaps i should warn people ahead of time of my non PC traits in my

future posts?....nah,...FU#K it. i was warned,...a strange kettle of fish.lol

+1  besides not being PC (politically corect), many jobs working on Minis can be described that way - expletives are just naturally assumed and are therefore redundant. BUT I do feel your pain -  59 is YOUNG! Wait a few years - more and more works less and less, and I'm not referring to the Mini!