Rear brakes

[jonmon6691]

So my experience with cars/brakes is limited. I've replaced my front pads and rotors a few weeks ago with out any problems. Well today I tried my rear pads. the ******* chiltons manual has really vague instructions and i was having a **** of a time trying to compress the piston. Well I finally figured out that I was supposed to rotate it clockwise. I didn't have the special tool so I mounted the caliper in the bracket without the rotor and used needle nose pliers to twist the piston. I think I spun it at least 20 times and it is compressing but I still don't have enough room to get the new pads in. Not to mention I've stripped the face of the piston pretty bad from the times that the pliers slipped, and the rubber skirt thing has separated from the base at one spot.

Have I messed anything up by scraping the surface of the piston? And also, how do I get the parking brake cable off? So far, I've just left it attached.

 

[Devin]

1. No. 2. Leave it on if you can.

My rear calipers were so bad when I went to change them I broke the special tool rewinding them. I ended up having to buy new ones, which necessitated me taking off the brake lines, ebrake cable, et cetera. I'm not sure if you can leave it on but I would if it were possible. It was not fun getting it on.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

e-brake lines are easy to get back on. All you need is a good pair of channel locks

 

[SHObill]

boot is ripped so replace the caliper.
& you have not turned the piston all the way in yet so the pads won't clear.

 

[hawkeye18]

I use a big pair of vise grips and grip the circumference of the piston. Works every time, and I don't dick up the face of the piston.

 

[Toul]

The correct too always comes in handy. You can rent one from most car parts stores. And is the boot ripped or just popped out of place?

 

[Phoenix]

These things are a real ***** to get back in , you need to PUSH AND TURN.
Specialy without the tools, its a pain. Id rather change them.

 

[jonmon6691]

The correct too always comes in handy. You can rent one from most car parts stores. And is the boot ripped or just popped out of place?

It popped out of place. The spinning of the piston was twisting the boot and caused a section to slide out from between the caliper and the piston.

(btw. wtf, why is a brake job harder than rod bearings? I've started to notice a difference in the equality of engineering between Ford and Yamaha)

 

[nothingtoseehere]

Use this tool which can be rented at autozone for the refundable 20 bucks or so, and see how easy it is. People are lazy and make things more difficult than they need to be for themselves. With that tool, the caliper piston will be turned in with no issues in a matter of minutes.

 

[hawkeye18]

I probably should've mentioned that there is a 6 inch C-clamp that is used in my vise-grip process as well. Turn twice on the grips, turn twice on the c-clamp. Repeat. Edit: a lot.

A second person for this process is invaluable.

 

[jonmon6691]

I think I'll go with the tool kit I've learned my lesson.

 

[92inPA]

Use this tool which can be rented at autozone for the refundable 20 bucks or so, and see how easy it is. People are lazy and make things more difficult than they need to be for themselves. With that tool, the caliper piston will be turned in with no issues in a matter of minutes.

The AZ tool takes 75% of the difficulty out of replacing rear pads. If you spray a little WD40 on the boot before turning the piston, it won't give you any further hassles either. Rear brakes on SHOs are easy to service if you have the right tools.

 

[jonmon6691]

Napa had a socket extension designed to turn the piston. And a massive C-clamp turned out to be more effective than the turning anyway.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

Napa had a socket extension designed to turn the piston. And a massive C-clamp turned out to be more effective than the turning anyway.

If you are talking about the cube, yes, that thing sucks. Works, but sucks. The tool kit I posted is the only way to go.

 

[jonmon6691]

I saw the cube thing, but that wasn't it. It looked exactly like once of the pieces in that tool kit, but it had a 1/4" square in the middle for a socket wrench.

 

[Brent]

I spent a whole day trying to turn in the piston on the left rear. I was using some weird type of plier. Banged knuckles, no luck.

Then I bought that cube thing. Waste of cash unless the piston is already turning freely.

So I bit the bullet, went to Lordco and picked up a whole new caliper. ~$100 after the core refund.

Uber easy after that. So easy I did the other side while I was at it.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=40732

20 bucks

 

[jonmon6691]

Considering there's a good chance I'll only use this tool twice in the next 5 years, I'll stick with the cheap napa socket adaption (not the cube thing) Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[notbange]

I was using one of those cube things on a car up in the air, and it slipped and my ratchet hit me in the mouth. I gave the cube to a coworker immediately, and bought myself the rear caliper turn in kit.

 

[itwonder]

Many times the caliber hardware is corroded under the boot and the piston won't turn back in properly. I think you'll end up replacing the caliper.