so the girlfriends accord has been making a squeek noise from the back wheel for the past couple weeks and when i finally got around to looking at it i noticed the rotor was rusty. no problem the caliper slides are stuck. after a little bit of heat and grease their moving fine.

took it for a drive and noticed the brake was still dragging, i figured the piston was stuck and was just going to push it in and out a few times to try to free it up, well it didnt go so well. the piston came out but no matter what i did i could not get it to go back in. i spent the next 3 hours trying to figure out how to get a C clamp on it but its such an odd shape there was no way to get a good grip. finally i got frustrated enough i un bolted the brake lines and took the caliper apart only to realize the parking brake was holding the piston in place and i needed to spin it in. i have never before in my life seen this kind of setup.

i guess i'm lucky i didnt do any obvious damage to the caliper, atleast none that i've noticed. it was after midnight when things got moving in the foreward direction and i really half azzed the dust boot since it seems near impossible to get it into its groove and squeeze the piston in at the same time.

anybody have any advice to get the dust boot back in its groove without taking the piston out of the bore again?

somehow i have a feeling i'll be back again real soon.....

 

I've always managed to avoid un-seating the dust boot. You may have to get the piston back out again...

If you got any squeeze on it with the C-clamp, you may have damaged the auto-adjuster for the handbrake. You can get it working by twisting the piston out & in to the right position, but it might not take up slack as the brake pads wear down.

Also, here's what happened to me on a 95 Integra...
Dragging brakes get the caliper hot enough, so the handbrake lever corroded. I mean the lever/post that goes through a seal into the caliper body. Then the handbrake mechanism in the caliper had way too much drag, and the return-spring wasn't strong enough to release the brake. So then I bought rebuilt calipers...

 

by this do you mean that the emergency brake alone wont work, or that the piston wont adjust out when the pads wear?

 

What year and model Honda are we talking about? If they are rear disc brakes on an Accord, the piston suppose to be turned back in; not pushed in with a c-clamp.

 

95 accord...i've got it all back together and the brakes are bled and working fine. pretty much right now i need some advice on getting that dust boot in its groove once i take it apart again.

 

I was just guessing that you might damage something related to that handbrake auto-adjust mechanism. If it works now, good. Maybe over time you'll notice the handbrake will gradually quit working as the pads wear down. Hopefully there's no damage at all.

 

just an update.

i took it apart yesterday to get the dust boot back in, i thought i'd be able to push it in with the piston still in but i didnt have any luck. i had to take the piston out which wasent such a bad thing because i got to make sure everything was nice in clean since i was rushing to put it back together last weekend.

first i put the boot in the groove in the bore, then had a helper help me hold the other end of the dust boot open far enough to get the piston in.

as far as any damage from trying to push the piston in, i took a quick look while the piston was out and everything looked fine.

a couple turns of the piston and a couple pushes of the brake pedal and it was good to go.