Today I started putting on my new brakes on my 2005 V6 stang.

I bought the GT front caliper brackets, 4 drilled/slotted rotors, and Hawk HPS brake pads.

I got the front brakes done easily...

Then got the the left rear. I got the rotor on, and the caliper braket on, but the caliper will not fit over the new pads.

I can't seem to get the piston compressed enough...does anybody have a solution?

I tried bleeding them a little...but the piston will not compress, and will not fit over the pads.

 

I believe that the caliper piston needs to be rotated clockwise to get it to move back into the caliper. There should be two opposed grooves in the face of the piston that can be used to turn the piston in. You can use a pair of heavy duty needle nose pliers, or get a tool from an auto parts store to fit the grooves.

Be sure to press in on the piston while you're turning the piston in.

 

Yup, I found it on another forum earlier and went to the store to rent a kit. I didn't realize they had to be rotated.

Thanks!

 

What kind of slotted/drilled rotors and where didja get em??

 

Just remember to realign the piston's slots correctly or you will have a hard time putting the caliper back on. If you don't realign the slots correctly your inside pads will not sit properly and you will wear them unevenly plus maybe damage the caliper !

 

****, I was going at it for a good hour trying to compress it. I'll give that a try next time, thanks for the tip guys

 

It's a royal PITA spinning the pistons back into the calipers. Here's a simple question, did you have the parking brake off when you were doing this?

 

I bought a little tool for $8 at NAPA that fits on a ratchet wrench to turn the pistons... piece of cake.

This might be something some of you may want to download for future use...

.

 

I made a tool to spin mine in with my cordless drill. It was just a small block of oak with two flat head screws coming into it from one side and set about 1/8" from flush. In the center of the other side, I screwed in a short lag screw. The block was placed against the piston with the two small screws in the notches on the piston and then I would spin the piston with my cordless drill fitted with the correct size socket.

It worked great, but it still would have been much easier to get the $8 part from NAPA. Just remember to get the part before you yank the brakes off your daily driver...

 

Last night I tried one with the needle nose pliers... took about an hour to do a single corner. I picked up a cube shaped tool from napa to try the other three corners tomorrow.

Do the front calipers work the same way except two pistons instead of one?

 

You just press the fronts back in:

 

the cube doesn't fit

 

Exactly, universal tool my A$S!

Find the side that will fit ecxept it has four pins instead of only two, then take off the extra pins with a hacksaw, file or bench grinder...

 

I took the two furthest pins and filed them down so they were narrow enough to fit in. That got it to rotate, but I had one caliper piston in the rear that just wouldn't compress past a certain point no matter how many times i rotated it clockwise. When I rotated counter clockwise it comes right back out and I can get it to compress back to the point it was at previously.


The end result was I got 3 corners done myself and then took it to a mechanic to get the last one done and flush the fluid. I got it done just in time to break em in a bit before for my drag strip runs today.

 

Here you go:
http://search.harborfreight.com/cpis...d=caliper+tool

Problem solved. I change my brakes so often (before races and then back after the event) and this $29.00 tool is an awsome investment. I have seen it on sale as low as $15.00 too.
It works on every brakes set up. I've used it on my F250 also and those calipers are huge!

 

+1 thats my exact kit i think i got it from autozone for 20 or so

 

+2 to the kit....might not need it often but its cheap enough to buy and if you need it youll have it