Scoobyrally

Hi I've just replaced the gearbox in my 5 speed dccd gc8. Everything was fine until I started to bleed the clutch and realized that the pin in the slave cylinder was nearly fully out without putting pressure on the clutch fork!!
I went ahead and bled it anyway and as I thought the clutch pedal was on the floor before it took any pressure from the fork.
I then pushed the pin fully back in the cylinder and put a piece of metal about 25mm thick between the pin and the fork, got in, pressed the pedal and the clutch engaged perfectly!
Has anyone come across this before? I'm thinking something must be bent, either the clutch fork or the pressure plate although very unlikely.
Everything was installed correctly (clutch actually works) but there's too much gap between the slave pin and the fork! Thanks!!