Technical Rear caliper nightmare

[crosstown]

My car's been immobile since last Saturday because I attempted to change my brake pads. I knew they were low and the pistons were almost completely extended. I started on the left side and realised this was to be my first time changing pads on rear caliper with wind-in calipers.

I went and bought one of those tools with the pins and discarded all but the disc with the pins as there was no way the rest of the tool was going to fit in the gap and if it did, it was too confined to line up with the centre of the piston.

I wrongly believed that the RH caliper was reverse thread (the LHS is) and managed to extended the caliper fully. I had the very same ordeal with the LHS but managed to get that one sorted- I had read here about the technique involving using channel locks to twist the piston and someone else taps the front of the piston, relieving the threads so the piston twists back in small increments. This worked on the LHS so I persisted on the RHS.

I reckon I cross-threaded the RHS piston in my efforts and after hours and hours and many failed attempts to get it to move in any direction, I gave up. I reckoned the piston was getting distorted and has to be buggered.

On Tuesday I rang a breaker and my 'next day' delivery arrived today I was greeted by a crusty old looking caliper (as you can see) and even on the bench, the caliper won't move using the twist and tap techhnique that worked on the other side.

I'm reluctant to even look at the used caliper- I'm sick of fighting with breakers. It seems to me that they're perfectly happy to stick any piece of crap in bubble wrap and take your money. I know well I'm looking at lying to the loss of the €70 I paid whether I try to make it work or not.

Is there anything else I can do?

Would popping my own caliper out fully and stripping it on the bench give me the chance to right the previous wrongs? There's virtually no corrosion- it's not obviously seized or corroded in any way apart from the buggering I gave it. I don't know enough about the anatomy of the the piston to know what my options are...

 

[crosstown]

To update,

I took the bull by the horns and went at the car with my dad. We went for broke and just stamped on the pedal. After some cajoling the piston popped back up straight and after a couple of pushes, the piston came out with no problem. We looked at the bore and the seals and it all seems good and it all looks good to go apart from the split dust seal. The piston got the minimal crud removed and it it looks like I lucked out and there was no damage done.

The brother is being dispatched tomorrow to see if we can get the bits together and if we can, we'll focus on recommissioning mine. We trial fitted the piston and it all seems to want to go back together no problem

 

[Fergie]

Fiat rear calipers are a nightmare. My back right was sticking last year, but garage managed to free it off. Going by the dust it produces it is still a bit dodgy so I'll end up replacing with proper recon ones. Personally I wouldn't bother with a rear calliper from the breaker - usually ends up a false economy.

 

[F123C]

Although I have a Bravo, I haven't worked on the rear calipers yet.

But I have worked on rear brake calipers on Fiats a long time ago.
It used to be possible to remove the self adjuster mechanism
from the caliper (a bit fiddly) and fit it into the piston before
refitting piston and adjuster to the caliper as one unit. This
meant the piston was already wound back and no risk of
'cross-threading. There was a small 'O' ring seal to be changed
on the adjuster screw. It used to be standard practice to rebuild
these calipers in Fiat Main Dealers back in the day and parts were
available.
Maybe ask the parts and workshop guys at a local Fiat dealership,
if you have one near you?

Where are you situated in Ireland, I'm in Co. Wexford.

Al.

 

[850kd]

Crosstown - My advice - based on experience of a similar problem - is to get a rebuilt one from carfactors uk, you can find them on ebay and they ship to ROI.

 

[weepeggy]

Hi Crosstown,

I feel your pain here.
Changed my rear pads this year thinking yeah, easy job under 2 hours, no problem.

4 hours later and a phone call or 2 to my guru mechanic Bro in law and to many times walking away (swearing lots) for a time out. I eventually got the job done.

I didn't have a piston compression/winder tool so what I did was pack the space between the piston and caliper with a suitable sized socket then made up the slack with washers, gently tapping the last washer into the stack to make it tight.

I then used pipe grips to turn the piston and kept packing the gap as I went (rinse - repeat) until the piston finally (easily) turned and retracted to fully home position. This was very tedious and required more patience than I thought I had lol.

It turned out at first I had spent a long time turning the piston the wrong way, doh..
If memory serves me correct L/H and R/H side caliper pistons turned opposite way round to wind them back.

Hope that helps and good luck.

Bravo - 198 - 1.6D multijet 105Hp