hey i was attempting to fix/replace my rear Brakes
and when i went to compress the piston on the caliper and i couldnt get it to compress
any ideas?

kinda besides the point but
i dont know if its just me but when ever i goto work on my own car things never go smooth but when its some elses car i have no problems.

 

well im the most mechanically challenged on these forums so yea i get that a lot.

 

I think they have to rotate in... not sure on that.

or get your friend to jump in the car and press the brakes and try it then

 

the rear caliper must be rotated while being compressed. you can not just push it back into place with brute force. there is a tool that will fit the grooves of your caliper and using a torque wrench the tool with rotate and compress the caliper at the same time. just dont compress the caliper to much and get the tool stuck. also when you have the caliper almost fully compressed use a screw driver and prop it under the rubber lining around the caliper to release any trapped air or the rubber could break. go to an auto store and ask if they have the said tool above to borrow or rent.

 

HA! I was right.

 

ok thanks alot guys
now i know why that wasnt working

ok now for the fronts are there any tricks for that?
or can i just compress them like a normal car or do i need to do something special

 

Are they different from the back? Because they should just rotate in also

 

besides the fact that there bigger
i dont know if there different i havent gotten into the fronts yet

 

The fronts do not need to be rotated to compress. The reason that the rears need to be rotated is because of the action of the the parking brake.

 

^ Right. I forgot about that, it's been a couple of years since I've worked with brakes.

 

ok cool thanks alot guys i was pretty annoyed yesterday when i was trying to get the backs to go in
thanks for the help
any other words of advice?
im sure i can handle it
i felt like an idiot because i consider myself pretty good with brakes
but i guess its tru u lean something new everday

 

My advice to you is to not take advice from me on disc brakes. But if you want to know how to change drums brakes quick, let me know. When I was when I was 16 I set the pads and springs out and changed the pads on all four wheels on a car in 1min 54sec.

 

hahahahahaha oh ya well im not to bad at drums myself
i gots 4 years of auto shop under my belt
and i just so happened to have the speed recored in all of Las Vegas lol

 

At what time? I don't know how I did really, I just figured 1:54 was pretty fast. I about got bit by those springs a few times too because I was just going for speed more so than safety.

 

Ok in oder to compress the back calpers I was told they have to be spun in
How do i do this ???

 

go to kragen and buy their little disc brake caliper tool. Looks about like a 1.5" metal box with little spuds sticking out. Attach to wratchet.

 

ok thx

 

They need to be turned in clockwise. I bought the little tool (it's like $5) and it sat in my box for months because none of the little confugarations of nipples (awesome) actually fit the notches in the caliper piston. I ended up using needle nose plier tips in the notches and it worked fine until I ran into a piston that was uncooperative. I ended up breaking out the tool again, upon closer inspection, there was one side that had a little nipple (awesome) on each corner. They were the right shape and distance apart to work, except the mustang caliper piston only has 2 notches... I ended up grinding off the other 2 corners and it worked like a charm. remember to line up the notches of the piston so that if you drew a line through them, they would point to the axle center (these notched line up with little nubs on the back of the brake pad. Also, yank out the 2 slide pins from the caliper bracket and clean / grease them up while you're in there (if they are not already frozen in there. Don't ever unhook the e-brake spring

Also, fronts just compress in

 

I didn't use a tool either. Needle nose pliers work just fine for spinning them back in all the way.

 

I had to file a little bit off the spuds on 1 side of the tool but it makes it light years faster once you get that nailed. Cobra1923 gave a really solid breakdown of the important bits. Those are very much the important parts. Everything else is just turning wrenches.

 

i got it all done now but i just went to Checker Auto-parts and they had a kitthing that u can rent out and it's like a $45 deposit and when u returne it u get a %100 refund
it went flawless i must say
thanks guys!

 

hey all, I've been having a problem turning my pistons in. I got the right tool from advance and had to ground the little nubs off. I've been sitting there spinning the piston around for about 30 minutes now, and i don't think it has compressed at all. is there something I'm not doing? Thanks.

 

bolt the caliper back up to the car without the rotor in place so you have something to press against and press in firmly (don't try and kill it, just good solid force) as you turn the piston. If it won't go in at all there's a chance it's damaged.

 

That's the best way to do it. Also, you may want to remove the cap for the brake fluid. It will allow the air to escape a may make it easier.

 

Thanks guys, putting the caliper back on the mount helped a lot.

 

I had one llike that once, DPO used a clamp to try and drive the piston in I think. just ended up replacing it. A new rear caliper was surprisingly cheap.

 

I just encountered same problem rear caliper wouldn't compress.. When I took TIre off to examine break noise issue I found that pads were gone rotor was shot and caliper was seized on after alot of hammering and prying I finally was able to free rotor and replace all parts needed. I thought caliper was no good and seized so while online looking for replacement part found forum and everyone sounding off on same issue where I found that no tool was needed just need to turn clockwise till it opened up all the way. What worked for me was taking a flat head screwdriver and slowly tapping indentations till caliper was screwed all the way down. This saved alot of time and money with this knowledge I hope this helps anyone having same problem..