CRAZY STORY 05 Stang

sullygtstang

New Member
Dec 1, 2004
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georgia
It all started when i was preping my car for painting my calipers. I had my car up on the spare tire jack and was removing the rear wheel. As i was taking the caliper off, my friend( a mechanic) told me to remove the E-brake so we could remove the caliper. So i did....and the car rocked and fell off the jack. Luckily the car landed on a bolt which could withstand the pressure of the car. We couldnt fit the jack under the car anymore because it was so low so we were screwed. We took the caliper off for the hell of it and a spring accidently popped out and then my other dumbass friend put the e-brake on while the caliper was off so it pushed out the piston and we couldnt push it back in. So we have a brake pad without a spring, a Fu&ked up piston and we are on three wheels. So we got an audi jack and ghetto rigged it up until we could fit the mustang jack so we had two jacks going at once. We finally got it high enough for the tire to fit just at the car fell off the jacks again and we were ok on that part. So we have the car in the garage now and i dont know what to do. Should i order a new brake pad, but what about the pistons? Should i get it towed? any advice would help. God damn those calipers....they are still the same color :damnit:
 
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My personal recommendation....(don't shoot the messenger - some of us just aren't mechanics and I'm chief amoung them)....get a mechanic to fix it and don't mess with it again :)

Hell I'm so bad my WIFE usually fixes anything that goes wrong mechanically around our house...I did however manage to remove my own HC trap. :)

Earl
 
No offense, but I think you've demonstrated that you shouldn't be doing this sort of thing with your car. Either get a friend who has demonstrated the knowledge to show you how and help you do it, or give it to a proffesional. Everybody has to learn from experience, but some risks are just to great to take.
 
sullygtstang,

No embarrassment. It happens.. I almost took off half my face when I was installing an Eibach spring on the front of my '98 V-6. Finally got a spring compressor and a Stang buddy to help. Lesson learned.

There are 2 things I now know: What I can and cannot do. Engineering I can do - Mechanics limited unless I have a complete breakdown and rebuild manual at my side.

As for the car Bud, call a tow company to come give you a hand and get it to a shop to fix. Hopefully you do not have ABS on that thing. The caliper piston would take a compressor to get back in, and even then, you would not want to risk it. Remember - that is the only thing you have to stop the car... :)

Holler back when you get it fixed and let me know how much that caliper costs. Then we can run a cost-analysis on if the caliper painting was a wise investment. :(

Jenn
 
JACK STANDS!!! Never rely on just the jack to support a car! People are hurt or get killed every year because they are too lazy to slip a jack stand under the frame.
Hydraulic jacks can let loose, and spare tire jacks are typically not fit to lift a schwinn.

Heard a story once about a guy that wanted to rotate tires, so he lifted all 4 tires off the ground with 2 bumper jacks... one in front and one in back. You can imagine what happened...
 
Reminds me my when I let my EX "rebuild" the motor in my 95 cobra. By the time he was done, I was out about $5000, and my motor was only running on 6 cylinders, yet noone could figure out why. I ended up having to sell the car because it was never the same after that. :fuss:
 
RetiredGeneral said:
JACK STANDS!!! Never rely on just the jack to support a car! People are hurt or get killed every year because they are too lazy to slip a jack stand under the frame.
Hydraulic jacks can let loose, and spare tire jacks are typically not fit to lift a schwinn.

Heard a story once about a guy that wanted to rotate tires, so he lifted all 4 tires off the ground with 2 bumper jacks... one in front and one in back. You can imagine what happened...

Gotta agree with the general here.. JACK STANDS! and for that kind of work NEVER I mean NEVER use the spare tire jack. If you do you are just begging for something to go wrong.. But the good thing is no one was hurt and you learned somthing.
 
You can use the caliper bleed valve and a C-Clamp to compress the caliper piston.


And for the love of god use a floor jack and stands before you mangle yourself under a fallen car.
 
You can't use a C-clamp to compress the piston on rear disks. You screw them back into their bores with a special tool made just for this. The tool is available at auto parts stores.

Also, I disagree with those who say to give up trying because you made mistakes the first time. Mistakes are how you learn and you should keep at it. When I started modding my first stang I knew almost nothing about working on cars. When I was done (19 years later), there was nothing I couldn't (and didn't) do on the car myself. Even changed the rear ring and pinion, bearings, and rebuilt the traction-lok without problems.

Just keep trying and learning.

Owner1
 
I would never use the spare tire jack for a driveway job. It should be used for emergency ONLY. Like if a tire blows out on the side of the interstate. A standard floor jack with a pair of jack stands is much easier and safer way to do it. Good luck.
 
Owner1 said:
You can't use a C-clamp to compress the piston on rear disks. You screw them back into their bores with a special tool made just for this. The tool is available at auto parts stores.

Why can't one just use a large C-Clamp on the rear calipers? Do it all the time on my subby and toyotas.
 
I just heard from the dealership and it is only $250 to fix, and yes i am getting a jack stand...as you can imagine i have learned a valuable lesson. But i agree with Owner1, i will keep trying but i am not sure if this is the type of car to experiment with you know? I am determined to get these calipers painted and i now know how so when i get my car back from the dealership, i will do it in my garage with jack stands. Thanks for the info guys