Best way to depressed caliper pistons?

[JVT007]

I'm going to change my brakes who do I depress the pistons without a c clamp if possible.

[BillyCobin]

I'll start with good luck.

I assume you want to know how so you won't have to go buy a large C-clamp? If that is the reason, the pain that you will endure is probably worth the 10 bucks for a c-clamp.

I worked on the brakes on a girl friends '89 Delta 88, and I didn't have a C-clamp. I had to remove the caliper from the brake line. So right there you have a mess of brake fluid. Then I had her brother, an avid body builder, sqeeze as hard as he could with a large pair of slip joint pliers on the piston. Since he could only put pressure on one side of the piston at a time, he had to sort of work it back and forth. He was eventually able to do it, but I doubt it was very good for the caliper.

If you don't have a really buff guy and a large pair of slip joint pliers handy, maybe a vice? If you have a bench vise or something of the sort, you could take the caliper off and squish it back in with that.

I used to work at a parts store, and we sold a little tool, about 6 bucks, that was made for this purpose. There was a long bolt with a piece of flat metal that would rest on the inside of the place where the outside brake pad rests (confused?), then you would turn the bolt, and it would force the piston back in. It cost about 6 bucks I think. I picked up a 10" C-clamp at a cheap tool store for right around 10 bucks.

Unless someone has a super secret ninja style method that they would share, you are probably better off getting a C-clamp.

Something just struck me though. Possibly, just maybe, the stock car jack MIGHT fit into the caliper if the pads where removed. It just might be ghetto enough to work.....

[Tyler]

uhh...all i used when i changed my breaks was a huge *** flathead screwdriver...


just mess around.. kinda like wedge it in there, and it'll start to depress...it was easy

[Cale]

Hopefully you'll be that lucky again.

You may just go buy that cheap 6 dollar install tool that was mentioned above. Mine actually broke on me it was so cheap, but it worked.

[rockotman]

I use a pair of 18" channel-locks (Jolly Green Giant Ball-Busters) - I ain't no olympic weight-lifter, but I never met a front caliper I couldn't compress easily AND evenly with those... including the beefy suckers on my son's firebird.

Now if you are talking about rear calipers with the integral parking brake, those are more difficult - you need a special tool that turns the piston as it pushes in. When I need one of those, I borrow if from my buddy's shop.