I have been working all new brakes this winter...finished the fronts fine and i am about 60% done with the rear but I can not seem to be able to compress the piston back enough so that the new pads can go over the new rotor (its about 1/8 inch) too narrow. It appears to be a pin associated with parking brake thats stoping but my hope is someone else has had the problem or knows how to fix it.

 

Is the parking brake fully released?

 

Are you spinning the piston while compressing it?

 

No need to.

fitz796: the parking brake might be keeping it from going in if someone had adjusted it, but it is a rarity that anyone ever touches that adjustment. Are you using a c-clamp to compress the piston?

 

use a c clamp with a piece of wood to compress the piston

 

the brake is fully released and i disconnected the cable to the parking brake. I've tried using the c-clamp but not with a piece of wood or spinning it yet. Not sure if someone else adjusted it before I bought it because the brakes havent been touched since I bought the car. from the looks of it, it appears like there is a small rod that is preventing the piston from going back any further and this rod is what pushes the pad out when the parking brake is engaged. Im completely stumped

 

You don't need to spin the piston as you compress it, at least not on your 95 Z28. I generally just leave the old pad on the piston to compress it with a C-clamp.

Shoebox has a diagram of the rear caliper assembly.

http://shbox.com/1/rear_caliper.jpg

The parking brake actuator lever (#26) pushes on the pushrod (#22). My version of the same diagram does not show the dotted line which appears to indicate one of the brake collar return springs (#12) goes over the pushrod. I don't think it does. There is a parking brake lever adjusting screw (#32), and maybe that is screwed in too far and somehow preventing the system from compressing.

Did you remove the #26 lever so the pushrod could move out of the caliper?