Retracting rear caliper piston......
 

Well I finished up the rear last night and the only thing that delayed me was getting the rear caliper piston back into its bore. According to the Haynes manual its supposed to be twisted clockwise to get it back in but its not really moving. Any ideas?? All thats left after this is bleeding the brakes and the conversions complete :D

Man that part is a pain in the ass... If you go to any auto parts store, and pick up one of those cubes with little notches in it. It's a caliper pusher - inner, put that sucker on a socket wrench and push REALLY hard and turn clockwise. The idea is to push and turn at the same time, make sure there that the bleeder valve is open.

If all else fails... (seized caliper) put it in a vise and use that to compress the caliper, then go get a rebuild kit and use an air compressor and blow air into where the brake line meets up on the caliper. That should blow the piston out and you can clean it up and replace the rubber seals with the rebuild kit.

Are you using the little 'tool' for this? Even with it they don't move easily.

Yea I was trying to use needle nose pliers. I'll pick up that tool you were talking about f1bluerx7. Im really hoping they're not frozen but considering the condition I got them in, I wouldnt be surprised.

The rear pistons must be turned to push in. How in the world can you compress it in a vise??? perhaps you are confusing the rear with the fronts???



Ni5mo180SX you are on the right track with the needle nose, that is what I have always done on them as well.

Yeah, my mistake. My front's were seized when i pulled them apart, of the 8 pistons divided between the 2 calipers, 4 were siezed at 140k mi. Guess I ingested too much brake fluid ;)

Needle nose pliers should work fine for the rears. If the pliers don't work and you have to apply excessive pressure with the "tool", then you should look at rebuilding the calipers or getting a set of rebuilt ones.

GOT THEM DOWN!! Its great having all your old HS friends working at an auto shop :D All I have left to do is bleed the brakes and I can give everyone impressions on the 5 lug conv with rear dtss eliminator bushings. :p:

Cool, How did he get them down?

I just took it down to the local pep boys and let them twist it down. I also used a larger pair of pliers at home which worked pretty well. Im still kinda worried that they may be dragging a bit.

How do you turn the piston to push it in?

Inside the caliper bore there is a threaded rod. This rod is threaded into the piston. You need to turn the piston clockwise down the rod to make it recess.

This threaded rod is what makes the parking brake work. It is the mechanical link that operates the brake without brake fluid.

I used that square cube tool and it worked great. I would recommend putting the caliper in a vise so you can put more pressure on your rachet.

James

icic
thank you
so I can't turn it with my fingers?
I almost thought my calipers were seized and I already called to see how much a rebuilt way.

I love this forum.

Because of the friction of the piston seal and the piston boot. Friction as the piston rotates into the bore.

If you remove those two it spins nice and easy. However, with out those you would have a small braking prob:)

I have a question following up all of this:

I was trying to replace my brakes tonight, and I got the front ones no problem, but the back passanger side is fine..

The driver side, I can spin the caliper round and round, but it wont retract.
Do I just turn the caliper so it is at a 90 degree angle and then push in? Or must it be rotated around clockwise the whole time in order to retract it...


I must have spun that piston a good 40 times clockwise and it never retracted.... I think I might have some problems...

Any help would be great. Thanks.

Well, All it did was rotate the piston clockwise and it retracted itself.

Yes that seemed to work on the passanger side however the driver side is being a little mean. Maybe the threads are somehow damanged on the piston for the E-brake not allowing it to retract.... Im pretty clueless though.