disassembling caliper without compressor?

[petejw]

U can also lay the calliper on the ground,
cover the piston with a block of wood and give
it a cpl of good knocks, this will help loosen the piston,
u can then reattach it, bleed and pop the piston out that way,
or as others have said, use compressed air, save u having to wait on getting a greese gun. jat

[Incubus]

Before you try to pump it out, first use some vise grips or pliers or a vise and try to push the piston back in a little, This will break the seal holding it frozen in place. It will come out easier afterward.

Patrick

[dontlikeoc]

The gas station compressed air doesnt work. The brakes were soft. That is why I am trying the grease gun method. I may try bleeding the air out of the system and try reconnecting the caliper to the master cylinder before getting a grease gun.

Partick,
I will try pushing the piston back too.

[GARTHXS]

the way i did it

I took off the caliper and gave it a 24hour soaking with PB blaster and then gave it a good wack then I grabbed it between my feet and grabbed the piston with a set of vise grips and pulled real hard and gave them a little side to side pull an they slowly pulled out

[macdaddy]

heres how i did mine , u guys on here may not approve but ; take a pipe tap that u can start to thread in to the caliper , tighten till the piston starts to turn then put tap into a vise and tighten , then use two pry bars and work it out alittle at a time spining every once in awhile , worked for me sweet
, i know its not the " correct " way , but . had to throw my two cents to help

[John]

Do it this way. It WILL work

I have been a staunch proponent of using a grease gun to remove frozen caliper pistons for a long time. It works when all other methods fail. You won't need to find a grease fitting, just use the bleeder screw. The grease gun coupler will latch onto it just fine. You will want to find a bolt to use in place of the banjo bolt that attaches the brake hose, or you can wad up some paper towel and stuff it up into the banjo bolt to prevent the grease from oozing out of it. As soon as the piston is out, remove the square O ring in the caliper and clean the grease from it, scoop the grease out of the caliper, and then use some brake cleaner to clean the remaining grease out of the caliper. Don't forget to remove the wad of paper towel from the banjo bolt either.

[crazy steve]

I have been a staunch proponent of using a grease gun to remove frozen caliper pistons for a long time. It works when all other methods fail....

I'm with John on this one. I've used this method for years, as it's the only 100% safe, non-harmful method out there. No worries about getting your fingers, sending the piston across the garage to be damaged when it hits whatever, wedging boards or clamps in there, or blowing crap all over. Yes, it's messy and a bit slow. But this will get the piston out with no fuss every time, no matter how badly it's frozen in there.

I've never tried the gun on the bleed nipple, as I have several 'adaptors' I've made over the years with regular zerk fittings for various vehicles, but if it seals on the nipple, no reason why this wouldn't work. Although I think you'd have seal the brake line hole with something better that paper towel....


'78E original owner

[dontlikeoc]

I ended up taking it to a mechanic. It was too difficult to find a proper grease gun. Everywhere around me seems to have cut back on selections they carry over the years.

Even his industrial strength air compressor couldnt do it at first. It took him a combination of C-clamping back and forth and air compressor took him two hours. There was rust in one of the calipers.

[trbig]

Where the air compressor method may be able to build up 150 pounds of pressure, the grease gun method can build up several times that much pressure and would have gotten it out in about 30 seconds. Even the cheapy Walmart tiny grease gun about as big around as a quarter will build more pressure than any air compressor. Not much more than that 30 seconds to clean the grease out.

Glad you finally got it apart.

Tod