Pitch Black

hey after my rear brakes decided to finally go out an in the process of installing the new brakes.. how many here change their brakes? did you have to twist the cylinder back up or did you just prise it? according to ford your suppose to apply pressure and twist it all the way back up... without that tool it was a job!

theedge67

I believe you have to twist it and push it in. Simply pushing the cylinder in will damage it. Why did your rear brakes go out? Usually those will last for a loooong time, much longer than fronts.

redfirevert06

I had the little universal cube, brake piston tool (the one with different sized tabs and configurations on each side) from the local auto parts store.
I found a side that had similar sized tabs, but it had 4 tabs on this particular side, so I grinded off 2 of them so that I could use the tool.
It worked fine after that.

Robbieg

You do have to twist, you can usually "rent" the tool for free at the local parts store. How many miles do you have that you went through rear brakes already?

Pitch Black

I have 50k on the rear... i got about 35k on the front...

NJ3

I had to do the same thing to the cube, one caliper was still a pita. I had to twist and push at the same time and ended up cipping the paint on my calipers.

Glenn

auto zone has the loaner tool you need/needed

theedge67

Are they mostly highway miles or city miles? I have almost 47K miles on my brakes, but they are mostly highway miles. I just looked at them a week ago when I replaced the tires and even the fronts looked very good. I think I will get 75K out of them.

RobK

Man, you should get near 100k out of stock pads these days. Do you two foot? Running the piston back into the caliper without the proper tool is near impossible without damaging the caliper. You'll be amazed how simple it is with the correct tool.

Pitch Black

hmm... we'll i drive at high speeds on hwy usually in a hurry... he company i work for doesn't reimburse for gas or wear/tear... it is a mix between city/highway... i live in the country so alot of twisty curves that are down hill..

theedge67

So, you are very hard on brakes...got it. You still never answered how many miles are on the brakes though. It really doesn't matter, I'm just curious. Brakes are not hard or expensive to do, so it's not really a big problem like a clutch is.

mot250

A pair of needle nose pliers also works. I like the needle nose pliers better than the modified cube tool, I've tried them both. Open the jaws on the needle nose pliers until the points meet the dimples in the caliper piston then turn it in like a big screwdriver.

At 25K on my rear brakes, both rotors are showing signs of some pretty bad groves on the inner braking surface, the side of the rotor you can not see due to the dust shield.

Also, one other tip. Once the rear rotors wear down a bit, the raised lip on the outer edge makes it difficult to slide the calpier off the rotor. I'd suggest checking the rear rotors earlier than later and replace them or have them turned to remove the "lip"

stangster

Wow, you must be tough on brakes. My 97 Ranger still has the original rear brakes with 138k on them. Granted, they're drums, not disc, but I hope for the same durabililty with my stang.

Pitch Black

yea i did in some previous post... but i got about 50k on my rear brakes and about 35k on my front brakes...

yea i'm rough on them...but like i said... the speed limit on the way home is 45 due to all the curves and such and i live 25mins from the nearest gas station so i'm usually speeding to town pressing the brakes pretty hard on the curve and speeding back up to about 60...