Master cylinder head/pedal connection
 

Recently, I felt something weird when depressing the clutch pedal on my Camry 2008, 4 cyl, manual. It started to engage/disengage practically on the floor. It does not sink or slip. It used to be higher. Today, I looked underneath and observed the following - when I push the pedal, the rod goes in and about half its way to the floor, the head of the cylinder (where it connects to the rod) starts to pivot/bend in downward direction. This way the rod changes the straight direction on its way in.It still goes in, the clutch engages but the rod frictions with the rubber on the cylinder and it squeaks a little. If I draw an imaginary line from the point it connects to the pedal to the hole of the cylinder at the firewall, it indeed is not a straight line so I thought the pivoting would compensate for this. Everything looks normal and in place for the rest of the assembly. Is this normal? I never thought to look under and see how it worked as new. This is a Beck/Arnley replacement of the OEM and has about 25K on it. Thanks a lot guys!
EDIT: There's only one hole to mount the bracket to the pedal and only one way to mount the cylinder to the firewall. Have no idea why the rod does not go in a straight line into the MC, instead it does at an angle. It pivots at both the pivot joint and where the bracket head connects to the rod.

UPDATE for those wondering: The problem found to be an absolute crappy BECK/ARNLEY pivot connector. These geniuses either manufactured the part with a design flaw or intentionally produced a crappy part. The said pivot connector (one end connects to the pedal and the other connects to the push rod) is made of two metal parts - a threaded nut encapsulated in a metal shell. The nut is wrapped in some plastic (!!!) and then put into the shell. Once removed I found it to be all loose and wobbling. When pressure was applied to the pedal, it would put pressure on the encapsulated part, and since it's so badly designed it was a mater of time before it gave out.

Took the pivot connector to a small local shop, they tore it apart, laughed out loud seeing how it was made, removed all unnecessary junk from it, centered the nut into the metal shell and welded the hell out of it. Installed it 15 min later and the clutch is like brand new! Total cost: $5!

DO NOT BUY FROM BECK ARNLEY! I hear they even supply some parts as OEM! Really? They were about to cause me cylinder damage resulting in replacing bot Master and Slave cylinders down the road, let alone the possibility of not being able to shift in the middle of traffic on some busy highway. I'm contacting their corporate office now.

Greet find and a creative fix! Thanks for posting back.

Is this the cylinder you had?
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...441514&jsn=445

Perhaps Toyota changed the design. There used to be just a rod with a rounded end to mate against the piston. The rod end was held captive in the clutch housing by a washer and snap ring. No plastic sleeve, nut, etc.

Beck Arnley doesn't make parts. They buy them from a host of makers and resell them. Typically their parts are very good, sometimes the same part the factory used.

That's the exact part. The pivot connector is ridiculously designed. There shouldn't be any moving parts and it should be kept as simple and durable as possible. Today, their corporate person responsible for that kind of claims contacted me for more info and paperwork from RockAuto. I gladly provided those. We'll see what happens. The funny thing is my primitive work-around turned out to be superior to their original design.
It's written B/A on the box and I don't care if they manufacture it or repackage and resell, meaning it's their name behind the product. I also bought B/A stabilizer bar bushings front and back and the screeching noise coming out of my car in low temperatures is ridiculous. I bought break pads (front and back) with the same order and those are still in the boxes. Going straight to the trash can, not going to even sell them. Coincidence? I don't think so...
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Photo shows the pivot connector before the fix. You can see the inner part with the nut and the way it's incorporated into the outer metal capsule which is not visible on the stock photos.