I was going to rotate tires yesterday and inspect brakes and suspension yesterday having rolled over 40,000 miles. Front looked good, surprisingly, rear down to about 1/8" left. Since I had already bought a set all around sitting ready and I have been hating all the brake dust, (for some strange reason mostly on the rear), I decided to do just the rear pads and see if I can’t get another 10,000 out of the front ones. I have done many a brake job before but this one nearly killed me. After much Googling I never could find out how to get the piston pushed back in, you can push as hard as possible with a C clamp (even with bleeder valve open) and it wouldn’t budge.These things have the parking brake built into the caliper (I noticed FOMOCO casted into it,should have known it would be trouble). The way I finally got it, was to remove the parking brake cable off, then turn the piston clockwise and push in at the same time, then it went in quite well. So three hours on one side, twenty minutes on the other. And now I have ceramic pads on the rear, maybe I wont have to spend so much time cleaning rims now.

 

you actually went through more trouble by removing the parking brake cable. you have to use a special tool that turns and pushes the piston in at the same time. my snap on set with all the adapters was somewhere around $300. but you can get a cheap set at harbor frieght for 50

 

I actually did research it befor starting the job and found nothing about needing a special tool, the reason for this post, so after I started the job all I could do is finish. And it did save me the cost of the tool.
PS, the brake job turned out great, love the ceramic pads.

 

Removing the parking brake cable had nothing to do with it. You just need to turn it while pushing it in, the special tool just makes it easier.