[DeTomaso] Rear Brakes Install

[sean mundy]

thanks Chris. What happened is my i was trying to see if my rear caliper was 
working.  With the caliper removed I put a piece of wood between the pads 
that was thinner than the disk.  I then pressed the brake pedal and checked 
that the piece of wood was being clamped.  It was.  I was able to remove the 
wood from between the pads but now the pads are too close together to fit 
over the disk..  I tried pushing the pads apart with various levers and 
clamps but they aint moving.  I also opened up the bleed valve on the 
caliper thinking that would help.  I have a VW and you have to turn the 
caliper piston with a special tool  to move the piston back into the caliper 
when you install new pads.  The Pantera piston looks like it does the same 
thing because there is a groove in the piston face that looks like its there 
for this reason to be able to turn it.  Its a perfect weekend in the Pacific 
NW and I'm stuck in the garage!!!!!



>From: "Chris Difani" <cdifani at pacbell.net>
>To: "sean mundy" <seanmundy at hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Rear Brakes Install
>Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:04:01 -0700
>
>Sean:
>
>There's a trick with the parking brake adjustment... I think. Unfortunately 
>(for you), I no longer have the OEM brakes on my '73L, so I never learned 
>the trick.
>
>But if you've got a manual, look for emergency brake adjustment. Or 
>something like that. I believe what's happened is the wear adjustment 
>mechanism has worked properly, and now you need to reset it back to zero, 
>or "no wear", or something like that.
>
>Of course, on the other hand, I could be totally wrong on this too....
>
>The final thing here is to make sure when you "opened" the caliper up, that 
>you also had the master cylinder's cap off, and made sure that the brake 
>fluid didn't overflow into the front trunk carpet. On normal calipers, I've 
>always used a big pair of  pliers, and squeezed the pucks back into their 
>cylinders. It's difficult to do because you're working against the 
>hydraulic inertia, and having to "push" (flow) all the fluid in the pucks 
>back thru the system, and finally into the master cylinder.
>
>Or you may know all of this already from prior experience. Always hard to 
>give advice when you don't know the level of knowledge to start with.....
>
>In any case, good luck, and if it's not the emergency brake adjustment, 
>then it's got to be the fluid in the master cylinder. Especially if you've 
>kept the master cylinder "topped off" over the years as the brake pads wore 
>down.
>
>Chris
>
>Chris Difani
>'73 L #5829 "LITNNG"
>The Electric Pantera
>Sacramento, CA
>Email: cdifani at pacbell.net
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "sean mundy" <seanmundy at hotmail.com>
>To: <detomaso at realbig.com>
>Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2008 11:02 AM
>Subject: [DeTomaso] Rear Brakes Install
>
>
> > Help.  I have my rear brake calipers off and now can't get them back on. 
>  I
> > can't spread the pads enough to fit back over the disk.  I tried turning 
>the
> > rear brake caliper piston left and also right but it doesnt seem to be
> > moving in or out.  What's the trick here?
> >
> >
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