So I recently flushed the brake fluid and bled the clutch too. Ended up breaking the slave cylinder and put a new one in and rebled. Whilst bleeding the brakes I noticed one of the bleeder screws was stripped so I ordered a replacement. When the replacement arrived, I looked underneath and the bleeder screw on the other side of the car was leaking!

Anyways I must not have bled the clutch enough because my wife was complaining that the shifter was getting harder and harder to shift.

Well I tried the jam-a-stick-on-the-clutch-pedal-overnight-trick.....AND IT WORKED! Woo hoo! I actually used a baseball bat and when I told my wife she looked at me like I was crazy.

Nice easy shifting now. For a second I thought I would have to live the shifter cables and possibly drop the exhaust to look underneath. But it turned out to be the clutch.

So kudos to this forum - it is not the first time it has helped me and countless others and I'm sure it's not the last. I glad we are all here to help each other out when it comes down to it.

It was too much of a coincidence that after having some failures that there just might be air stuck in the clutch lines preventing a full throw.

 

There are alot of finicky, odd ball things about the MINI that are fixed with equally quirky solutions. I'm thankful to all the experience and helpfulness here on the forum. THANK YOU to everyone who contributes their knowledge!

I just had to shoulder tackle a stuck reclined seat to reset the recline lever. GOOFY! :D

There truly are no stupid questions to ask here about the MINI.