How to Compress a Caliper

Video Transcript

MARK BLOCKER: In this segment, we're going to cover actually compressing the piston in the caliper. We're going to use a specialty tool and this is a rear brake system with the parking brake attachment. As I explained earlier, the six sided device, the application that best works for this caliper is a two round pivot point. And we'll just slide that up in here and you set those into the pivot points and you make sure the block is correctly inserted and it fits snugly. And this is something to remember because it's going to seem backwards to you 'cause you're going to want to turn it counterclockwise but in all reality, to screw the piston back in, it turns in a clockwise direction on both sides of the vehicle. So, once it's inserted, I'm going to use a long extension or 6 inch extension ratchet and I'll locate that caliper up here with the back against this rear spring there and make sure I keep my tool correctly inserted into the caliper, and then what I'm going to want to do while applying inward force, I'm going to want twist and turn this in a clockwise direction and then it's slowly going to screw that piston right on back down. It might be a little bit tight at first but it should move with resistance. It's not going to be extremely difficult or hard or it shouldn't be. And you just want to turn it down and usually, somewhere between 1-1/2 and 3 revolutions, it kind of depends on how much downward force your applying, the piston will rotate down and come down to its neutral position. And you just want to stop and periodically check where it's at. As you can see right now, the piston is already flat, pretty much a flat surface across, you see how it's collapsed down, the dust boot is surrounded up around it. And that's why I pointed out to you that if you use a pliers or other methods, you want to make sure you don't mar up the outer portion of that piston because with the fully compressed down there, the seal wraps up around it. And if you damage or slip off and create a burr on that metal, you could easily damage the seal and that's going to allow contaminants into the piston area and cause a rapid deterioration of the sealing surface required for the piston seal on and the rings to heat up. Now, we've got the piston caliper collapsed and it's ready to install. Watch our next segment and we're going to cover installing the caliper mounting bracket.

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