When I took my rear tire off last week to change it I of course ended up with the brake caliper hanging loose. For some reason before I could the new tire on the pads closed up. In trying to push them apart I saw the pads were badly worn out. One was almost paper thin. Rather than just wait and do nothing while I waited to get new pads I decided to just pull them out and put the caliper back in place. That way I could get the belt aligned and the axle nut torqued.

I got the new pads today so I took the caliper off the bracket to install the new pads. I tried using needle nose pliers to turn the piston back in. Yes, you do turn it clockwise. A couple of posts from years past say to turn CCW. That is wrong. I could hardly get the piston to turn so to try to free it up I pulled on the parking brake lever. The service manual says to turn the parking brake lever to retract the piston. Oops! The piston all of a sudden got pushed almost all the way out of the cylinder. I could not for the life of me get the piston to start retracting by turning.

What I believe happened is that with the pads worn down to almost nothing the automatic adjustment had turned the adjusting shaft so much the piston was about to come off of it. The little extra turn when I moved the parking brake lever was enough to turn it off. I cobbled up a tool to turn the piston and still I couldn't get it to catch and start retracting. As a last resort I disconnected the brake line and put the caliper in the vise. With no hydraulic pressure on the piston, and working the parking lever I finally got it to catch and retract. It only takes about 3 or 4 turns to seat it all the way.

So, be warned. If your pads are totally worn down be careful when trying to turn the piston in. It will be close to coming off the adjuster shaft. If it does, the air in your garage will turn blue very quickly!

Now, any suggestions about how to most easily bleed the rear brake line will be appreciated!