I have a '73 2.0 i'm parting out, and my rear calipers are uberfrozen to the newish rear rotors.
anyone have a good way to get the pistons to slide back through their original hard as hell rubber seals and unseat so they'll loosen up enough to remove the calipers?
i've already loosened the e brake adjustment nut and of course loosened the bleeders!
thanx a lot
914 addict
soon enough to buy another one...w/o factory rust for a mutant V8 mod....
after I turbocharge/intercool/big brake etc my just bought $500 88 jetta Gli w/ factory recaros etc...

I would think once you have removed the brake line and removed the 2 bolts that hold the caliper on you should be able to take a piece of wood or a metal drift and push/hammer the caliper off of the rotor. You would place the wood/drift under the caliper and try to slide if off the rotor does that make sense? As the old Pep Boys commercial said " just keep hitting it ". Good luck

The parking brake needs to be loosened off, and this can be very tricky. on the outside of each rear caliper there should be a plastic cover over the adjuster; use a 13mm wrench. Then you should see a 13mm nut on a threaded adjuster. Use a 4mm Allen key to hold the adjuster while loosening the nut about 2 turns only. Turn the Allen key clockwise to pull the piston back into the bore. Whatever you do, don't force the adjuster.

Use penetrating spray on the pad pins. Remove the wire clips. Use a small punch that will fit through the outer holes of the pin bores. Use a bit of heat, penetrating spray, and the punch with a hammer to knock the pins out the back side of the caliper. Remove the sheet metal spring under the pins. Don't lose the pins, clips or springs since you may not be able to replace them easily. Try forcing the pads away from the rotor with a wedge and a hammer (a flat screwdriver blade works good). Don't worry about damaging the rotor, they are not as valuable as the caliper. Always work between the pads and rotor. Try forcing the pad up and out of the caliper with a wedge between the pad and the hat of the rotor. Once the rotor is free to turn, then you can remove the caliper.

Yes, there is another adjuster on the back side of the caliper, but I don't suggest working on that until the caliper is off of the car.

Heat, penetrating spray, and careful use of a hammer will work.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=62997

Contrary to what might have been said elsewhere, those hard as hell rubber seals aren't holding the pistons out there. There's some corrosion on the sidewall that's holding them in place. My guess is the pads are sticking to the rotors as well.

"Loosened the e brake adjustment nut" could be a couple different things. Let's start there. I'm going to assume you mean the outer adjuster lock nut. Did you then turn in the outer adjuster? Once you loosen that lock nut you should be able to use a 4mm hex and turn the adjuster clockwise. That should pull the piston back in enough for you to free up the caliper.

Also, take the clips out of the pins and drive the pins out of the pads. That act alone may free up the pads enough for you to lift the assembly off the rotors.

Also "and of course loosened the bleeders!" is not a going to do much of anything for you in this case (except get brake fluid all over everything.) I'd tighten them puppies back up.

If you want simple...

Take off the e-brake cable from the cable
either unclip it, or cut the cable with a sawzall/cable cutter.

Take out the two bolts holding the caliper in place.
Take a large prybar, pry it off the rotor..

I took off a set that had no intention of moving...only took a few minutes per side.

Rich

ah ha!
you guys reminded me of something i haven't done in AGES...
adjust the parking brake with that funny backwards threaded allen bolt w/ the locking nut on top. i know i loosened the nut, i never touched the 4mm allen!
now i'll rmember to turn it "backwards to get it out...i managed to get the front and rear chrome bumpers off tonight in the snow...those are going up for sale as soon as i clean and polish them.
lots more stuff too, but my dad said it HAS to be out of our driveway in 2 weeks...
luckily my buddy has a huge race shop w/ 8 acres of property! unfortunately, it's in colonial beach which is 1.5 hrs from here, but no worries
my goal is to simply get the motor running, drive it onto his enclosed trailer or a borrowed trailer (other VT friends have a new BMW shop close by with an open trailer i might be able to use...) and then drive it off into the back of his shop.
i'll sell the 2.0 when someone wants it, although it needs to be rebuilt, it's a good core adn it's still injected
other stuff too, but i'll post it in the right place when i have time...soon! (as soon as i get all my various motorcycle parts photographed, cataloged, and listed elsewhere...NEVER enough time!!!)
thanks again

and some of the prying ideas are good.
i used PB on the calipers to no avail
even bent the outer pad ears tryhing to pry back the piston with a channel lock pliar.
time to get more instruments of removal and wait for the sun to come up and it to get a bit warmer...I LOVE working on top of really wet melting snow!!! or in my unheated garage at 3am trying to get my car put back together enough to make it 4 hrs back to college for a 10am class...i've lost count of how many times i took a nap while under the beast!

still no luck BAAARGH!!!
I tried doing what yall suggested, but alas, the gods that created the 914 were hovering overhead...they saw the rot in the rockers and jackpoints and the lower dog legs and said..."WAIT...we should have added MORE to those r calipers!...yeah, the adjuster screws, we didn't completely secure those...Let's get out our microscopic MIG and weld them in place...from the INSIDE of the caliper!"

ok, so i have had issues with these calipers before. I believe this is actually the one that froze up on me in the winter of 2001 as i remember the car had "a bit less power" and i could hear the pad grabbing. one of the last times i drove the car, i could not find a ride to ski team practice, so 60 miles later west of blacksburg i was in BFE, West By God Virginny...Ghent 2 be exact. at WinterHole, a ski mountain built by a bunch of drunken rednecks in bulldozers!...hmm, why cut a nice steep trail here on this natural hillside??? naah we can't ski that!, let's instead pile up 2 stories of dirt to make a "freeway" to get those who can barely stand back to the lift to the lodge, of course, if they catch an edge, they go down a HUGE embankment that's 20 feet high, and end up in a dense forest, they WON'T get hurt that way!!!
anyhow, this caliper was siezed cause the rotor was really hot, i spit checked it and MAN was it warm.
so back to teh task at hand...

Previously, a long time ago, i had tried to loosen the outside 4mm allen bolt that adjusts the pads. it didn't want to budge and it split like the top of a castle nut so that now when u try and use a 4mm allen (even a "true 4mm" aka snap on T handle) the allen spins....some reverse engineering...
well...if i spin the adjuster nut out enough...i can get it to hold the allen bolt "closed" around the allen head.
nope.
i turned too hard, mo fo sheared off w/ my 13mm wrench
my next sugegstion is this...I have about 2.5 threads showing out of the caliper.
take a bolt and double nut it, with the 2nd nut showing 1/2 it's threads sticking out past the end of the bolt that's the same thread pitch as the 4mm allen. double nut to prevent nut from spinning on bolt...duuuh!...old trick i learned with the Formula car and racing...and screw it on hard, more penetrating fluid, this time some heat from a torch, tap the caliper with a hammer a few times as well as teh screw (already done)
and try again
i have not yet added the torch
been busy polishing my front and rear '72 chromies bumpers i'm selling....
any suggestions from teh peanut gallery?
you guys are the best, thanks for all the honest help so far, still have to try prying more w/ different sized pry bars and maybe leave 1 caliper bolt in the trailing arm and try prying the bottom out, if that doesn't work, heat the caliper and .....pray!
then sit there and for a while till Fe2O3 gods look kindly upon my actions....

Get an 11mm and split the caliper in 1/2.

(and a MAPP torch)