[Peter M]

I'll be doing a brake job soon (13" front, OEM size rear), and I need a little help . The Chilton manual(yeah, I know... don't give me a hard time ) says that when replacing the rear pads, the piston needs to be compressed and then rotated with a special FoMoCo tool. Is this really needed, or what? Also do all fronts need the Torx bit for servicing? I have a '96 Sport.

Thanks,
Peter

 

[BR1]

yup, that is correct. they are built like that for the e brake i believe?? anyway, you can buy a tool at sears that is for this purpose. the piston has to be rotated while being pushed in. question though, what are you doing to the rear ones? how many miles do you have on the car, b/c mine has 54K and the rear pads were fine still. as for the front, i did not need a torx bit, they were all sockets on my 96 cougar.

 

[Peter M]

I have about 60k miles on it, but my front left pad is WAY too low to wait much longer. I'm getting the drilled/zinc plated discs up fron and wanted to get matching discs for the rear. Sooo... Well, you get the idea. I just couldn't stand the thought of real nice looking brakes up front, and old yucky ones in the rear.
Thanks for the info on Sears.
I'm just worried I'm going to be down to metal before my new ones get in(1-2 weeks, and yes they are that low )


Peter

 

[W.Cup]

I tried to use the special tool for the rears, I had no luck. It kept slipping off. I have 77k orig miles on my rears & they look like they have 25% life left. I probably will pay someone to change them when it needs it.

 

[OnE-SaD-BirD]

ya i have a haynes manual and they suggested i use needle nose pliers. it seemed to work okay. a buddy of mine brought over his tool for it, its a cube with different shaped 'bumps' (only word i can think of) on each side. looks kinda weird. i had the same problem that W.Cup had with is slipping off. i had about 10% left after 90K miles. but i ended up having to get one of the calipers(?) replaced b/c it wouldn't compress. costed me $70 part + labor.

 

[Rolling-Thunder]

In addition to what has been posted above, keep in mind the following,

When you rotate and compress the piston back into the housing, you only do this enough so that the new pads just clear the rotor surface. They will NOT automatically adjust back out, like the fronts will.

 

[billabong132]

if you engage the e brake a couple of times it will adjust the rear pads back out, in fact anyone with rear pads should engage there e brake once a month to readjust the pads since they do not autoadjust.