went to put new brakes on my 92 ram D150 and now ive got them off, but i cant compress the piston on the caliper. any ingenious ways of compressing it? ive tried a c clamp and the clapm bent, i straightened it a couple times, but the clamp keeps benfin before the piston moves. help please

 

remove the master cylider cover*.

then use a C clamp or huge channel locks (be carefull) and slowly compress it back.

let us know !


* with master cylinder cover on, you cause a back presure with no place to go. fluid will spill out.

 

gracias for the reply, but sadly this was already tried and yes i found the pressure, but to no avail did it help.

 

Try opening the bleeder.
Compress the caliper in the very center.

 

If a caliper is hard to compress it usually means there is rust inside and it needs replaced. If it is hard to press in with a C clamp then it won't release as much as it should while driving and will either wear the brake pads out fast on that side or cause the brakes to pull to one side.

When you first try pressing the caliper in I usually put the old pad across the piston so I can press in the middle.

Derek

 

hey i use the old pad too!
if you open the bleeder and it still wont go back in,the caliper is shot. same goes for taking the lid off the M.Cyl.

 

from past problems if a brake caliper wont compress replace it. When you do replace it also replace the other side. Alwaysreplace in pairs and then flush the brake system out, if you dont have the tools to do that try taking it to a auto repair place and have them do a brake system fluse. Your barke will thatnk you for that....lol.

 

Yeah as said put the old brake pad across the caliper and use the c clamp. If it's still hard to push in replace both sides as they said.

 

This week I was going to replace my brake pads. I couldn't push the piston completely in to install the pads. After several times taking it apart to ck for corrosion or dirt, I finally took a micrometer and found that the outer part of the piston that touches the pads , was larger than the back diameter of the piston. It was just expanded enough , that I could not push it all the way in.It also had composite piston and not metal. Somehowthe outer part of the piston got expanded and would not let move into the caliper. I'm a retired lifetime tech, and never experienced this problem. Replaced both calipers. Works fine now. Just something I wanted pass on .