Technical Rear brake caliper wind back tool

[Deckchair5]

Hey guys, I'm thinking i will need to change my rear pads sometime, so, thinking ahead, I've designed a tool that will wind in the brake pistons easily with real control, no pushing and shoving to do and it will make no difference whether it's right hand or left hand screwing in as it will wind the piston in either direction with a spanner on A
View attachment STILBRK2.BMP

I'll have them made up at my local engineering shop and try it out to see how it works
View attachment STILBRK4.BMP

Fiat make something a bit like it but theirs needs different left hand and right hand screwthreads and you have no control over push or turn. With my design you are in total control of thrust with bolt B and turning with nut A

You change your rear pads once in a green moon so you don't want the £90 universal kits and most of them don't cater for left and right hand threads. When you need to change the pads then you need the tool NOW so haven't got the time to make something up

The problems that people have as i see it are not being able to control the push and turn effectively and the piston not retracting squarely. This design takes care of all that, simple is best!

If, once tested, i make a few of them then, who knows, Stilo owners might want to buy one as they should be cheap and cheerful. You could always sell it on when you've done with it but it would be easily adaptable for other cars too.

 

[Cris]

I have one of the above tools though the shaft is threaded so it works for one thread but not the other.

Cost about £20

I should add that the pins (it has two options for width, one ether side of the plate) are too narrow on one side and a bit too big on the other. So it slips half the time.

Bought from my local motorfactor

 

[Deckchair5]

Should cost between £10 to £20 as I've made many items like these in the past. The more there are the cheaper it becomes of course

Raw materials are dirt cheap (steel merchants are still the only place where you can walk out with more than you can carry and still have change from £1) most of the bits will be made from stock items and I'll probably do the welding myself

I'll make up a prototype and see how it fares and then have a better idea of costs and improvements.

 

[Hellcat]

Do you know what the price is for having the rear brakes changed at a reasonable garage? Rear disc brakes are not changed very often, at least not on any of the disc equiped Fiat's I've owned. They hardly do any work and the pads look good even after 10's thousands of miles.

 

[Firewarrior]

ill buy one

 

[Deckchair5]

FIREWARRIOR
Thanks for your interest Firewarrior
I'll maybe put some photos up when it's made and show it in use perhaps

HELLCAT
"Do you know what the price is for having the rear brakes changed at a reasonable garage? Rear disc brakes are not changed very often, at least not on any of the disc equiped Fiat's I've owned. They hardly do any work and the pads look good even after 10's thousands of miles".

Well the point is that most people on the forum are "hands on" kind of people and want to do things themselves if they possibly can. It's not just the cost by any means, it's the inconvenience of having to find somewhere to do it, dropping the car off, being without car for some time, having to arrange other transport, taking time off work etc- it all adds up. (Then there's the taking it back when the pads squeal afterwards just to go though it all again)


Aimed at the "hands on" forum guys, then turning the 4 hour bloody experiences that some others have had, even damaging and having to replace the whole caliper in one instance I recall is to be avoided

Turning the process into an easy 10 minute job is the plan

Also, for people viewing the forum in other countries, it may be handy if they have access to engineering shops, to be able to produce similar items themselves from the drawings
(sings) "If i can help somebody ....."

 

[Shminkypinky]

Looks good Deckchair.
I design tools and machinery for a living on 3D cad so if you need any 3D models or engineering drawings producing let me know.
(Dont mean to patronise you, but obviously don't know if you have access to these facilities although judging by your drawings you know what your doing)

What material you thinking of making this from Stainless Steel or B1 tool steel or will it need to be that strong?

I too would be interested in one of these tools if its a success!

 

[Deckchair5]

Hi Shminky
The engineers i use are used at deciphering drawings on the back of beer mats (where so many good ideas are formed) as they do a lot of ad hoc stuff for the Universities here too. Thanks for the offer of CAD drawing, when i go into world wide production then who knows

I'll use mild steel for the prototype as it can be made of any thickness really so strength shouldn't be a problem and welding will be easier. People can push the piston back with their hands so it shouldn't need huge forces

I'll proof test it and make sure it's a success before going into mass production

 

[Firewarrior]

End of the day mate ill always try and help a fellow fiat owner out, and i think what we need is more people like yourself who are coming up with ideas to help others. Fair enough you could go out and buy one from halfrauds or something, but i know who i would rather pay.
Designing your own equipment is a fantastic idea, it encourages me to get involved in mechanics and im sure it does others aswel.
Top man

 

[Deckchair5]

Thanks for your comments Firewarrior
I'll be taking some final measurements today and will then be ordering parts. It'll probably take a few weeks to get it all together, then I'll make sure it works as well as planned and then we're ready to roll

 

[Deckchair5]

Well, things are looking good. Took out the rear caliper on my car today to get some final dimensions and, just as I'd hoped, it'll be easy to use the tool with everything in situ so that's going to save absolutely hours in doing the job. No need to back off the handbrake, no need to bleed the brakes, almost as quick to change the rear pads as doing the front ones.


(Sorry for grotty picture but you get the idea)
I reckon it will take no more than 30mins per side to change the pads with the tool if you're doing it for the first time (20mins 2nd side) compared to the hours and days that some people have struggled with it. No more taking the caliper completely off and putting it in a vice or beating the poor thing with a hammer

So, next stage, on with the manufacture

 

[Shminkypinky]

Deckchair!

If the tool is a success! and by the sounds of it it will be!
Will you be able to make it available to all of us? say via Ebay???
And will you be able to produce a dummys guide to changing the rear brake pads? Could be a PDF download to save printing costs.
If you could this could be an invaluable tool to the Stilo owner and could make you a few quid too!

 

[Deckchair5]

Hi Shminky
Yes anyone with a credit card and an email address will be able to buy one through Paypal (I'll probably put it up in the classified section here) and I'll put a "How to" guide up.


I'll try it out on mine first and, fingers crossed, I'm hoping with the push and the turn control it will be almost effortless to use

Good news is that the rear brakes seem to be the same throughout the whole Stilo range regardless of engine size so it will be a universal Stilo tool

The next job will be 1.6 cambelt- How to replace without needing any special tools

 

[Rampage94]

hate to upset your plans, but you relise a C- clamp does that very job? been useing them for years.

 

[Deckchair5]

Try just a G clamp on the rears and it will end in tears
For the front pads yes but the rears you need to turn and push at the same time, one side clockwise and the other anticlockwise

 

[Rampage94]

must be a fiat speciality. if thats the case, this will be very interesting to see how it works. and if it works count me in!

 

[PNL]

Try just a G clamp on the rears and it will end in tears
For the front pads yes but the rears you need to turn and push at the same time, one side clockwise and the other anticlockwise

Didn't end in tears for me I had never done a car with a anti clockwise piston rotation before and to be quite honest I cant see what all the fuss is about as the job can be done with a grinder spanner and clamp or even the cube and clamp maybe its my engineering background and dexterity coming out here even so though Decks 10out of 10 for effort mate and would be useful for the less mechanicaly minded members on fiat forum if it helps them then that's good could do with some of that electronics knowledge you have though that to me is totally alien :bang: do you give lessons part time ?

 

[Deckchair5]

You didn't just use a G clamp, Phil. If you had you would be getting out your cheque book for a new caliper assembly. You too had to apply turning effort to the piston in order to get it to retract, making do with an angle grinder tool i believe.

The piston has a sizeable thread to allow the piston to only retract a small amount in use and, in order to push it back, if you don't turn whilst retracting then the whole lot will become jammed.

But you have to push too and because there is nothing to push against then it then becomes easy to push out of line, that tilts the piston and t becomes jammed again or damaged

So it needs controlled pushing, done squarely against the piston and easy turning of the piston at the same time and it should then retract easily and smoothly in minutes rather than the hours that some have taken.

I recall someone did it by using just long nosed liers but his hands were bloody and bruised and took him all day to do and recover. Another tried brute force and needed to buy a whole new caliper assembly

Hopefully this tool will make it easy for any one to do, be done in minutes and with no risk of damage to the piston

 

[Deckchair5]

Not everyone has a complete workshop in their garage like you and I Phil which is what the tool is for. Hopefully, the tool will make it as easy to replace the rears as replacing the fronts. Instead of hunting around the garage looking for bits that might do the job, you're already job done and inside with your feet up. The caliper is also over £100 to replace if you screw up the threads and then there's the bleeding the system afterwards.

It's not just replacing the brakes, you need to retract the pistons to change your discs, wheel bearings, sort out squealing brakes and almost everthing else to do with the rear suspensions so it will take hours off of all jobs requiring brake pad removal

 

[Argonought]

I fully concur with you on this Decks

Just had a go with mine and had to abort (dark clouds approaching). I was already prepared with a cube and found turning the piston easy but was defeated by having to push very hard at the same time. I had a nasty moment when I decided to wind in the opposite direction (to free it a bit) and nearly had the bloody piston fall out

I'm going looking for a T-bar with a comfy grip so I can apply a bit more pressure.

It's either that or a spot of weight training