coz I must be one.

As a total noob, and doing a few small jobs, I finally decided to replace my brake pads an my 1975.

So I did online reasearch, consulted manuals and books and finally went to autozone to pick up some new pads, quite brake grease, brake cleaner and a piston retract tool.

I jacked up the car, took of the wheels, removed the pin, removed the pads, and just for ****s and giggles I decided to dry test the brake pads (before putting on any lubricant/grease whatnot). This is where the fun begins.

The piston retract tool must be for some other type of a calipar, because mine completely didn't help. Appearantly I was also supposed to be able to retract the pistons with a screw driver. Yes they retract, but how the heck am I supposed to put in the new pad. Finally after 2 hours I was able to figure out how to put in the outer pad - retracting the piston with a screw driver, and inserting nuts to hold the piston and then slide the pad in, while the nuts fell out the bottom.

Of course this didn't work for the inner pad/piston area because nuts don't fall out that easily from the bottom.

So anyway.... how do you people retract the pistons.... seriously.. especially the inner piston.

me


Carly (1975 stingray)

 

If you're having trouble retracting the pistons, there are four of them per caliper, try loosening the bleeder valve and then prying them open. Be gentle or you can damage the piston cylinder walls and the seals. I hope you didn't blow the seals by prying on them with pressure on them.

Just so you can see, there are four pistons per caliper.

 

Well, I had the master cylinder open, so it wasn't that hard to retract them with a screw driver.

However, if I loosen the bleeder valves, won't the brake fluid flow flow out?

Are you suggesting I shouldn't be using a screw driver? What should I use then?

 

If you open a bleeder fluid will in fact some out but not all of it. You'll get out the fluid that's in the cylinders of that caliper. The fluid displaces as the pistons are pushed back.

You can open the bleeder with one hand, pry the pistons back using a tool like a screw driver, and then close the bleeder.

You can use a screw driver I was just suggesting you be careful and make sure the piston is being forced evenly across so it won't get cocked sideways.

Once you're done, it's a good idea to bleed the brakes anyway and refill the baster as needed.

 

and just to be sure,

the bleeder valves are the silver nipple looking things on each top corner of the caliper (there are three of them, and the fourth corner has a brake hose attached to it), correct?

Do I unscrew them all at once, or one at a time, while I pry back the pistons?

Thanks for the help.

 

Just one, at the highest point on the caliper. All you're doing is releasing the pressure.

 

I'm going to try that tomorrow.

I wish they included this advice when they wrote all the manuals, books and articles.

Devil's in the details...