rgpinder

Newbie here. Pulled my left front tire, removed the caliper pins and then tried to pull the caliper off. Used a pry bar. Still no go. I could tell it wanted to come but was catching somewhere. I concluded that it must be catching on a caliper piston, which means I need to know how to collapse the piston back into the caliper while the caliper is still on the rotor. What is the best way to do that?

trainwreck91

shouldn't be that hard, but i've had my fair share of stubborn calipers. sometimes it's the way you work it that frees it. like trying different angles. sometimes you have to push up from the bottom then push it out or vice versa. i don'd think it's the piston but you can try a large C-clamp to compress it. and if all else fails...a few taps with the trusty old hammer

warthogcrewchief

(Almost) Every time I work on the brakes, I compress the calipers with a large (6"+) C-clamp. I got mine at Harbor Freight for about $8. Place one "foot" of the C-clamp on the exposed outboard side of the brake pad. The other "foot" should fit (roughly linear) behind the caliper. Be sure not to squeeze down on any sensors, wires, lines or banjo bolts. Find a nice flat spot on the back and squeeze down.

NOTE: Be sure that all the other brakes are fully installed. If you compress on side, and the other side is disassembled, the other caliper will extend.

NOTE: Opening the cap (and leave in place) of the master cylinder reservoir may help to make the compression of the caliper easier.

rgpinder

SOLVED!
I ended up just buying a 6" c-clamp from Home Depot. Using that I was able to move the piston in enough to pull off the caliper. The piston was extended too far to prevent it from coming off. Thanks for the help.

warthogcrewchief

Glad it worked! I almost always use the c-clamp method first when disassembling brakes because it also releases the torque on the mount bolts.