Luckily my 348 rear brakes are fine. Its my daily driver 2001 Nissan that has the problem. I am hoping someone on here will have an idea. I need to put new pads in the rear brakes (discs). I did the fronts previously without a problem. The problem with the rears is that I can not get the piston to move back into the caliper (retract). I have used a large "C" clamp and used a huge amount of force but I can't get the piston to budge. I have opened the bleader screw and bled plenty of fluid out. I have tried with the parking brake on and with it off. Any ideas how I can get the piston to retract? Thank you, Kirk
How does the parking brake mechanism work on the car? Some parking brakes rotate the piston on a screw mechanism inside the caliper, so that as the pads wear, the piston screws itself outwards taking up the slack. In order to compress the piston, it must be screwed back into place. Usually the piston will have a couple of holes in the face so you can engage a pin spanner, in order to screw it back in. The other possibility is that the piston is cocked in the bore, once this happens no amount of force short of destruction will compress it. You must back it out and make sure that it is going straight in. Brian.
What Brian said sounds right. Before you try more force, buy a chilton/clymer/haynes manual for the car and look up pad replacement. Most rear brakes that incorporate parking brakes have some adjustment mechanism. You need to RTFM. Kind Regards, chris
Like most parking brake calipers with automatic adjustment, it needs to be turned to move inboard on a threaded shaft. the piston probably has reliefs cut in for a specific mating tool to work with a caliper piston retractor. Hope you didnt bend/ distort anything by applying c-clamp to it. Eric
Thank you for the help Eric, Chris and Brian. I did see detents in the end of the piston. I quess its time to buy a manual for the car. Thanks again! Kirk
