I've got a 92 Civic SI hatch and the rear brakes started grinding a little last week. I thought it would be a nice quick easy job to switch the pads but I can't get the rear piston to back up into the caliper. I tried using the small tool from Autozone to turn them while I attempted to back them up but no luck. I tried with all my might but can't budge them. I may just get new calipers due to the car being 14 years old anyway but I'd rather not do that until summer if I can wait. It sucks working on a car outside in the cold. Any help would be apreciated.

thanks,
Greg

 

take the cap off so that the brake fluid has a place to go, compress the piston using a c clamp

 

I would advise against pushing the rear caliper in with a C-Clamp. I've seen it done before by my friend, he ripped the threads on the caliper and it was junk. Unless you car has a small drum assembly that goes on the inside of the rotor, don't do it. If you car has the E-Brake set up on the caliper, you gotta turn the caliper.

AllData: " Rotate the caliper piston clockwise into place place in the cylinder, then align the cutout in the piston with the tab on the inner pad by turning the piston back"

 

are you guys all talking about the same thing? drums dont have pads, they have shoes... it sounded likehe had rear discs, from the terminology he used.... if you have drum brakes in the rear.. my advice is out the window... and you dont have rotors or calipers ... instead you have ..wheel cylinders
http://www.g2ic.com/tegtips/brakesus/5.html

 

yeah loosen the bleeder valve and then attempt to push the piston in while rotating it. i hate those damn things. never understood why it couldnt be made like a normal front caliper.

 

Thanks for the advice. I finished working on it about 9 Monday night. It was a pain in the butt. I had to release the bleeder valve on the passenger side to get it to back up then work it back and forth. The driver side wouldn't budge no matter what. I even tried to pump the brakes to get the cylinder out but it wouldn't move. I had to replac it. After I bled them everything was great. It sucks how something that should take a hour or two turns into 2 days. Thanks for the help everyone.

 

If the rear calipers were the same as the front calipers, then there would be no emergency brake.