I see a lot of painted brake calipers here, so I'm hoping you can help me...

I'm replacing my stock brake pads with Hawks. The front pads went on fine, as I could compress the pistons with my hands. The rears calipers will NOT compress. I have removed one caliper COMPLETLY and disconnected the E-brake and rented a caliper piston compression tool and the piston will not BUDGE beyond it's original position. I can manually squeeze the E-brake mechanism and the piston pushes out, but I cannot get it move any further back.

The stock rear pads were almost gone and the new Hawks pads are almost 3 times the thickness of the current stock pads. I need almost 3/8 more clearance to get the rear calpiers over the new pads.

Am I missing something? Anyone else have this problem and find a solution?

Thanks you your help.

::mitch::

 

Wow... Just POSTING to this forum makes me smarter!

Answer: Use the part of the compression tool that allows you to TURN and SCREW the piston back into the caliper. The rear caliper pistons don't PUSH back in.

You're welcome.

::mitch::

 

[sm=youreright.gif]i ran into the same dilemma with my buddies 98 gt a few years back... i need to invest in that compression tool before i attempt that on mine!

 

compression tool? You mean a C-clamp? hehe

baltimucho I love those rims. Where did you get them?

 

I change my brake pads out forracing pads before track events, then back to OEM pads for the street, so I have done this a number of times. As you noted, the rear piston screws in, doesn't just push in like the front pistons.

A 'brake cube' like they sell at the local autoparts store doesn't fit unless you grind off 2 of the nubs on the side that has 4 nubs, like this:



After that it fits OK but still doesn't turn easily and wants to pop out of the slots, making me worry that I was going to damage the piston or boot. So I decided to spend the $43 and get a proper tool, which makesthe jobmuch easier:



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...404011-9905558

It's a decent tool for the price although of course the similar ones from Snap-On, Mac, etc are better but a good bit more expensive. But it fits well and makes me much less concerned about damaging the piston.

Kevin.