I just got new rear brake pads for my 2002 Honda 400EX and I'm having troubles getting the piston back in the caliper. Is there a specific way to do this? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

i use a c clamp

 

Ok. I got the piston to go in by using the old pad for a nice flat surface. Now the bracket is holding me up. Does that bracket need to be adjusted too?

 

i had this problem my last brake job... so here it is, your new brake pads arent fitting because you need to loosen the parking break bolt, and nut. its the bolt sticking out on the left on top of the caliper. after you loosen that try to squeeze the piston back, hopefully that will work, and hopefully you understand what bolt im talking about.

 

the piston is all the way back. the mounting bracket seems to be in the way. it wont let me get past the outside pad.

 

take your parking brake assembly and loosen it. if you had back brakes before you took them off, thats what the deal is. loosen your parking brake, take the damn bolt right out if need be, then squeeze the piston again. i had the same problem. if you didnt try to take the parking brake bolt out, try it, and if you took it out, or loosened it (a lot) then i dont know whats up. sorry if i didnt help

 

If the caliper wont slide in and out on the bracket, then the slider pin is probably very corrorded, and posibly siezed. Very common problem, sometimes not so easy to fix. The slider pin needs to come out and get lubed with synthetic caliper grease, then itll work for a few more years.
The slider pin allows the caliper to float, and self center the pads on the brake disk.

 

The pin is likely corroded some, but I also think your problem is more likely to be the parking brake. Just unbolt it from the caliper and see if the piston returns all the way. Even if that fixes the problem, it doesn't hurt to clean/lube those slide bolts while you are there.

 

Got it all fixed up. I sprayed a whole bunch of penetrant on the sliders and then used the C clamp and pushed the bracket all the way in. Everything works great now. What a relief.

 

That penitrant did the job for now, but if the rubber bellow pieces are torn or let in water, it wont be long before it siezes back up with rust.
It should be taken apart, the slider needs to be cleaned up, sometimes with a file or scotchbrite, until it freely slides in the bore. Then replace any junk, rubber pieces ( they are like 2 bucks each), relube the slide with synthetic caliper grease, and reassembled.