You should be able to push the piston back in its bore fairly easily with the caliper off the pins and a big c-clamp centered on the piston. Especially with the bleeder open as described earlier. There should be no rough spots or tight places as you turn the screw to push it in. When I am changing pads, I wiggle the flat tip of a big, heavy screwdriver between the rotor and the friction material of the inboard pad keeping the tip away from the face of the rotor so as not to scratch it, digging instead into the face of the pad that will soon be replaced, until the tip is centered on the pad. I then lever against the outer edge of the rotor to push the piston in. The inboard pad distributes the load over the face of the piston (with the bleeder screw open, of course). This should be fairly easy to do with a 12-15" screwdriver. When you remove the caliper to clean up the pins, don't let it hang by the rubber hose - wire it or tie it up to the spring or strut. Inspect the boot for tears and splits also. These will let in moisture and cause corrosion of the piston and/or bore and cause problems.

But the best test is just to clean everything up, lubricate it, assemble it, and try it to make sure it applies easily and that you can spin the rotor by hand when the pedal is released. Nice to have a helper for this. But don't let them hit the pedal until the caliper is assembled with pads and in place!

I painted my calipers, and even after VERY careful taping/masking, i believ some overspray got into the caliper pins. They froze up 6-9 months later, and ground down my inboard pads completely. I was one month away from having no brakes.

Those Pins are the only real thing to maintain, other then bleeding brake fluid.

I think I'm going to take the whole front passenger caliper off the parts car just to be on the safe side. ( at least I know the one of the parts car didn't go swimming.. lmao ).

I have one question though.. when I take the caliper off.. it will obviously spew out brake fluid and have air in the line. I was told to just crimp the rubber hose with vice grip to ensure not too much fluid spews out and obviously I"ll have to bleed the system.. but reading up.. well.. with possible delamination of the inner tube.. should I crimp it with a vice grip? Or let it spew out and take way longer to bleed the air out?

I was thinkin of painting it since I have it apart.. but after reading that.. I think I will hold off on it.. stock looks alright.

If you are planning on using that hose ever...don't crunch it with vise grips. Maybe that'* why they delaminate, huh? Just bleed the brakes when you are done. It will flush out the old fluid and it is not at all difficult.

And you'd be surprised... capillary action pretty much keeps the fluid in the rubber line, unless you bang it, or purposely shake the line.

Never squeeze down on the rubber line, with anything.

OK.. thanx

Never crimped ( to my knowledge ) the lines.. and all I did on this car was shoes only.. but good to know.. Guess I"ll have to hit up Crappy Tire or NAPA for some caliper grease, synthetic brake fluid.. and if they have a pressurarized brake bottle to help do the one man job. ( there was a link I saw where someone made their own.. unfortunetly I can't find it.. and I won't really have time for it since I want to get it all done in one day )

FuddyDuddy (I think it was he) told me about self-bleeders. You can buy a set for your car for something like $20 to replace your stock bleeder screws all around. They are actually check valves that when opened allow one man to easily bleed brakes. I think NAPA might have them. A lot cheaper than a pressure bleeder.

Or, pick up a vac pump (even a hand operated Mighty-Vac) and use that to pull a vac on the stock bleeder. Been doing that for years to bleed brakes/suck out the old fluid. Just keep adding fresh fluid to the master while doing it.

On a side note: Bill, just figured out the "8419" reference from your sig. B&SVRR JS 8419. Very cool.

Been using that avatar for about a year now, and I think you are the first to figure it out! Give that man a cigar! It is actually a digital photo of one of the replacement number boards I made for the locomotive a few years ago. They are made of plate glass, and sandblasted on the backside to diffuse the light from behind so they show up nicely at night.

They sit on either side of the headlight - you can almost see one in this photo:



And look like this at night, (if you have blurry vision):

Self bleeders aren't a permanant fixture. They'll need to replaced every couple years, atleast that'* the recomendations i've seen in every discussion relating to racing, some suggest every year.