bent rear brake petal

I guess a few falls has my rear brake lever rubbing my engine case. Is there any way to bend it back to straight? I'm afraid that the aluminum would snap

You can straighten an aluminium piece, but you may have to heat-treat it first to remove the "work hardening" stress that has built up at the bend. The heat treatment is called annealing.

Remove the pedal and rub the area to be straightened with a bar of ordinary household soap, then heat the area with a blowtorch. The proper annealing temperature for aluminium is not far south of it's melting point and the soap indicates the correct temperature has been reached by going black. Don't quench in water, just let it cool a while and bash it straight with a mallet while supporting it on a bit of wood, or tweak it in a vice (use softjaws in the vice to protect the pedal's finish).

Caveat #1: I'm told that not all soaps are created equal and some hippie animal-free stuff won't work. It's never failed for me, but try it out on a piece of scrap aluminium first, (like that old clutch or front brake lever that you never got around to throwing away). It'll also give you a feel for the process. Remember, heat the area to be straightened until the soap goes dark brown / black.

Caveat #2: I'm guessing that the brake pedal is a forging. Forging imparts stiffness to the component by way of work hardening. Annealing will relax the work hardening, making the part less stiff. Of course, beating the part straight will return some of the work hardening, but it may be softer and less rigid than before, so thoroughly test the part before heading off to the track to do back flips.
Depending on the composition, some aluminium alloys will "age harden" after heat treatment, so after a couple of days the stiffness will return. This can be accelerated by heat treatment, but without knowing the alloy composition I can't advise beyond "mebbe leave it a couple days if you can". [/obligatory safety lecture]

Caveat #3: If the part stiffens up part way through straightening it then it's work hardening and will need to be annealed again.

Of course, if it's only bent a little then it may just need a tweak in a vice and no heat treatment. It's hard to advise without being there, but if it doesn't want to straighten, or wants to kink next to the bent part, then it will need annealing.

Let us know how it goes mate!

Most bends could be removed with the pedal on the bike with the two big adjustable wrench method... One to steady the pedal and the other to do the straighting.

Adjust the stationary wrench coming up from the bottom of the pedal and the other in front of the bend area of the pedal and then putting a bar or wrench in the holes of the bottom of adjustable wrenchs to add muscle to do the rebend work..

Hope it helps

Chow, Carl

I did a combination of both, It worked like a charm