Rear caliper wont seem to screw all the way In

Hello everyone...New Owner of a 91 Thunder Bird Super Coupe, and I having a bit of a problem.

I have been working on and off all day on my right rear caliper piston to screw it in ( with the tool from Napa) so I can get the pads on. Should it take that long? It seems like every turn gives me miniscule to no movement in the piston into the cylinder. Its getting frustrating, I knew when I bought the car that I would have to replace the rotor on the RR and then found that the bracket had a seized pin that I couldnt get out, luckily a friend of a friend happens to have a 90 SC parts car that i riped the bracket off for $5 . I might be able to get the caliper too, but this really has me confounded. I keep reading where all these people say its cake with the tool, 30 min tops.

Any suggestions welcome...should i just get a new caliper or is there something I'm missing in doing this?

Get a new caliper...

Sounds like the screw/shaft that the piston rotates on is snapped. Probably someone did the brakes one time and didn't know how to do the rear Ford Disc brakes properly (i.e. screwing in the caliper)

If it were mine, I wouldn't take any chances with it, it may bind up even if you thought you got it fixed, and that would kill your new rotor.

Phil

you have to push and turn, if you're careful you can tighten up a c-clamp and screw the piston in by gripping the sides with a large plier and turning, then tighten the clamp up more and turn till its fully bottomed

The tool I got did not quite seat properly into the resessions on the piston. I actually used drill and modified the piston just a little so that it would grab better.
Push hard a turn. Sometimes they're tight.

listen to assclown,

thats approximately how i did mine, except i was rebuilding the caliper, so i had it off the car, so i stuck it on a vise.

yeah i don't know what the deal is, they are hard as hell to turn in, sometimes.

but hey if you can get a new caliper for cheap get it, and get both, you never know what might happen in the future.

jim

It does sound like the shaft that the pistons screws back into is finished.

I just had the same problem with my back brakes and had to pick up two new rear capliers.

Thanks

Well I got pissed off and put the tire on the RR and checked out the LR and that piston screwed back in in about 10 min. Unfortunatey that bracket also has a seized pin..grrrrr. So I am off today to get a new rotor for the LR, steal another mounting bracket, and found a reman'd caliper ( I'm not going to mess with the onld one) for $20.99 at Advaced Auto for the RR.


I still haven't even looked at the front end, but I am praying that all the brake gremlins were in the back and the front is a cakewalk.

Thanks for the advice, this site is a lifesaver when it comes to help and I can defintiely see it saving me Big Buck$ in the future.

exact same thing happened to me. the passenger side was a 15min job, no probs at all. but the drivers side would not screw in if my lifw depended on it. so i dismantled the entire caliper(bad idea) to see what the prob was. but then you need even more "special" tools to put it back together. i took it to Ford, and THEY didnt even have the damn tools to rebuild the caliper. so i ended up buying a new caliper, only about $100, and it went back together in about 5 minutes. lesson learned i guess.

Well, Im an idiot for believing the guy at Advanced...$20.99 my a$$. The rear are more complicated and I knew it should have cost more and I was right. More like $80 for a reman'd caliper. So I'm getitng the caliper off the parts car of my friend.

I have everything together now and should have it all completed tomorrow. I hope no one else ever has to go through trying to screw a stuck caliper in ever gain..just read some posts here and move on, what a waste of time with that damn thing. Another aggravating lesson learned.