I went to do rear pads on my lumina today and I tried doing it the normal way, I.E. push the piston in with channel locks, after that I refered to my uncle(own's Jims home autoII in Va. Beach, does awesome work by the way and he told me to screw the piston in. Well, it turns clockwise but wont go in any. AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! What do I need to do?

 

don't screw them in at all.....ouch.

get rid of those ChannelLocks and use a C-clamp that's big enough to fit around the caliper assembly. The CannelLocks don't provide enough force to push the piston in, and sometimes it takes a bit of extreme initial pressure to move the piston the first millimeter or so....especially if the pads were so bad as to allow the pistons to over-travel.

If you have enough room, put one of the old inboard pads back in place while you use the C-clamp so that you get even clamping pressure while tightening the C-clamp.

Let us know if this works for you or not.

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86 Trans Am WS6 Black with tinted windows, shaved door handles
ZZ4, Mini-ram, true duals, LT4 HotCam, AFR 195 heads.
***Too many other mods to mention***

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will appear as a stranger" The Road Warrior

 

actually i think there is a tool you need to screw them in, but I dont think you screw the piston itself. there might be a bit on the back side of the piston that needs to be turned....but im sure there is some type of screwing that needs to be done

 

I know the fronts don't need to be screwed in, because I did my brothers's front brakes on his 91 lumina. The brakes on a 1997 contour need to be screwed in so there is such a thing like that.

 

Since they are rears, they probably have to be turned and pushed in at the same time. Thats the fun part. The ones that have to be turned usually are flat rather than having a big hole in the center, and have notches in the flat area for the tool that turns the piston.
With the right tool its simple. As you move down the scale in quality, it gets considerably harder.

 

I figured it out, I wasnt pushing hard enough on the piston.Thank yall

 

Um, those Luminas had the infamous rear sliders. I know there are muctiple TSBs on them. Part of the problem is the sliders freeze up. Not sure if this helps, but those sliders on those ares are a nightmare GM should blame on a Ford employee...

 

At our shop we'd say that Mazda must've designed it!

93 and older model year "W" cars have a campaign or something that applies to them that allows you a one time 75% reimbursement on the replacement of all the rear brake components. We've done a few for people, and we replaced the rotors, calipers, and pads. From there, the owner sends in to GM for the reinbursement.

I'm not sure what you have to go through ot get it, but I can probably find out.

The sad part of it is that they still didn't change anything in the replacement parts! Hmmm.... Oh well.


Good Luck!


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Working on:
'84 Z28 LG4 305 with 200,000 original miles!
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Building 430 HP 350 (ZZ430)
using primarily GMPP parts.
Short block sitting on a stand. (Man, those Fast-Burn heads sitting on it look good!)

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ASE Certified Master Tech

 

i got a 90 Lumina and did my rears too weeks ago. My advise ditch the calipers. Its all rusted and frozen inside. plus if the pads were tooo low you over extended the piston causeing it to come out.

 

there is indeed a special tool to turn them back as you push them in. if you got them to go back in without turning them, they won't work right again.