Rear disc brakes - was: officially stumped

[levi5940]

Hi all i been looking all morning for an easier way to do these rear brake pads on my girlfriends 98 taurus. Havin a hard time with the piston gettin it to retract, i understand that it screws in but the tool i bought sucks, it wont work, i bought the little cube that goes on a ratchet, in my opinion its garbage, where can u rent a real tool for this job? also do you turn it clockwise or counter clock to get it to go into the caliper? and what do i do after i replace the pads? do i need bleed the system and whats easiest way to do it thanks

[shorod]

You're right, those cubes suck. They work a bit better if you install speed bleeders in place of the stock bleeder screw, then you're only fighting the cube and not the resistance to move from the brake fluid.

You can pick up the better kit from Harbor Freight for around $40, or should be able to rent the kit from a local chain auto parts store. They'll charge you to borrow it, but refund the money completely when you return the kit.

You don't need to bleed the system after you replace install the new brake pads, but you do need to make sure the slots in the piston end up oriented correctly to align with the new pads. If the brake system has not been bled in the past year, it certainly wouldn't hurt to flush the brake and the ABS pump with new fluid since the OEM fluid absorbs moisture which can corrode the valves and other parts in the expensive ABS pump.

-Rod

[levi5940]

hi all, what started off as a simple brake pad change on this 98 taurus has turned ugly lol. to make a long story short i got the correct tool to seat the piston in the calliper however i only got about 3-4 turns on it, it wont go in any farther, i have the master cylender open in engine i opened bleeder screw i disconnected parking cable, what else is holding this piston from going in, i cant figure it out any help would be great thx

[TaurusKing]

Could be broken internally, I just replaced one that wouldn't turn at all..

[shorod]

Are you sure it's not seated all the way? Did the one on the other side compress further?

-Rod

[Dave_s]

It may be that the thing is seized. I'm not sure why it would go part of the way in and not the whole way though. Check if the boot is in good shape. If it is nicked or otherwise has a whole in it, you should replace the caliper. Also, going with what shorod mentioned, how far is it in? The boot should he completely retracted into the caliper. If you aren't sure if its completely in you can try to put it back together. It won't fit unless the piston is all the way in.

You should also check the brake lines. It could be that there is a blockage in the line somewhere, and the fluid can't get pushed back into the resoivoir. ONe indicator of this would be uneaven wear on the brake pads (one side is run downthe other side is fine). If you disconnect the brake line from the caliper, you will be fighting the caliper only and not the resoivoir (or the line as the case may be). If the caliper still won't push back in, you need to replace the caliper. If you disconnect the caliper, make sure you blead the lines.

Hopefully someone will chime in if i'm saying anything misleading (or silly).

Good luck!

[65comet]

When I do the rears, I take off the rotor then remount the caliper. This way the caliper is held in position and I can use both hands on the tool as I turn the piston back in.
Make sure your piston hasn't come out and is cocked slightly to keep it from going back in. Measure the thickness of your new pads and the rotor, then compare it to the space in the caliper. If the space isn't over half their thickness, then it might be out too far and not lined up correctly to go back in.
In a different situation, I've had a pad break before and that caused some serious heating from the metal on metal contact as I drove it home. The piston just didn't want to go in. I put some pressure on it with a c-clamp, removed the clamp, then turned the piston in and out a little. After a few rounds of pressure and turns it finally started to turn in without the clamp until it was seated at the bottom. Go careful with the c-clamp, just a light pressure to get the very slightest bit of movement. I only did this with the full expectation that the caliper was junk and would need replacing, so I couldn't harm it any further. That time it worked and I've gone 100,000 miles and 3 more brake jobs since with no problem from that caliper.

[levi5940]

Thank you all for the responses, i ended up just twistin super hard in little spurts till it was all in, took looong time, the guy at autozone told me he did his with a pair of needlenose pliers lol. when i had originally posted all the further the piston was in was only 4-5 turns... thinkin maybe it was slightly cocked or something, guess its on to the passenger side now , thanks all, hope this one is easier

[fubard]

I recently redid my rear pads after one of the pads disintegrated and let the pad go metal to metal with the rotor..cha cha cha . I bought the proper tool to use with my ratchet set after reading on here how crappy the cube was. I could not turn the one caliper in . I had to take it off the car and bench it . I placed it in my work vice carefully and reefed hard on the ratchet and it slowly went in. Once it had made several full turns it became quite easy to turn. Almost like it was jammed from being extended so far caused by the pad failure plus maybe some excess heat. The other side went much better. I did remove the rotor and re-bolt the caliper in place to make it easier to use the caliper tool. It was about a 2 hour job for both sides. I did find it odd that a pad would fall part but these were riveted pads. I replaced the old one with ceramic pads. I did the same with the fronts a few months ago.Now I have ceramic pads all around. So far they're working well.

[shorod]

Originally Posted by levi5940

Thank you all for the responses, i ended up just twistin super hard in little spurts till it was all in, took looong time....

Hmmm, that sounds a bit like a possible collapsed rubber brake hose to the caliper. Were both sides difficult to compress, or just one side? When the hoses collapse, it's not usually visible by looking at the hose. The general rule of thumb is if you open the bleeder screw and that allows the caliper to compress easily, replace the hose.

-Rod

[TaurusKing]

The problem i had with the little cube thing is that the spacing between the nibs wasn't quite correct for a Ford caliper, I ended up buying one of the kits for like 35 dollars, night and day difference.. sometimes it's worth the few bucks to make it so easy.. I tried the large needlenose also, nothing like the right tools.