DIY Piston Compressor Tool

Yes, I’m so thrifty I didn’t want to spend 10 Euros on a piston compressor tool and I spent an entire afternoon crafting one.

What’s a piston compressor tool you say?

When changing worn brake pads with new, thicker ones, this happens:

The hydraulic piston that pushes the pads against the disc is held in the position at which the old pads would barely touch the disc: since new pads will have substantially more material on them, the space left by the piston will not be sufficient any more. The piston requires quite a bit of force to be pushed back in its place, so a specific tool is needed.

The Art Attack

First, I grabbed a big enough bolt. It was pretty old and abused, so I had to rethread it a bit:

Secondly, I searched for a thick and robust enough piece of brass to which I would solder the nut:

And that’s the whole thing! See? It wasn’t worth that much money Here’s how it “works”:

And here is the junk masterpiece at work:

I guess… The dirtier the hands, the happier I am? Thanks for reading through, folks!