I have a 05 GT and just had the calipers removed from the rotors to paint them. I have reinstalled all the calipers except the left rear. I can't get the piston back in far enough to get the caliper over the pads and rotor. I have tried screwing in the piston, it seems to be in as far as it will go. the car has only 15000 miles on it and the pads are as thick as new. The right rear went back on but was pretty snug. The caliper won't eveno start on the left side. I've done brakes on a lot of cars and sometimes when all parts are new things can be tight, but, this isn't close enough to even start on. AQm I missing something here?

 

Did you check the master cylinder? It may be full and won't let any more fluid in. Try removing some of the fluid from the master cylinder and see if that helps. If not, then check the brake lines (both soft & hard lines) for any kinks. One of them may be kinked and won't let any fluid pass through. Good luck...

 

Make sure you didn't accidentally twist the caliper around when reinstalling it, I just did brakes on my BMW 5 series and almost had this issue, had to take the wheel back off, haha.

 

Ok, I found out that you have to apply some pretty heavy pressure upon the piston as well as turning it at the same time. I've always had success by just turning the piston on other cars. I made a tool out of 1/2" all thread and some other parts after seeing a factory tool online. It worked great, it turns the piston and threads in applying pressurs at the same time.
I guess you can rent a tool set for this purpose from some autopart stores.

 

Next time you can just use a vice.

 

Yeah, I plan to rent the tool from my local auto parts store the next time I do the rear brakes on my wifey's mustang. I have the little 'cube' with the different prongs on it and its a PITA to use.


The rear calipers need to be screwed back into the caliper. They don't compress in like the front calipers do.