Hi

I've snapped the piston on my brake as above. I've dis-assembled it and the Hayes instructions tell me to use compressed air to blow the seal and rest ofhte piston out. I don't have compressed air and carefully applied pliers don't seem much use either. Any ideas before I take it to the bike shop?

Cheers
TS

flat head screwdriver and hammer, smash it out, its the only way

You could try a track pump or a trip to your local garage or tyre house

Drill blind holes in the inner circumference of the recessed part of the piston sufficient to insert a spike then lever it out gradually?

How does one snap a piston if it's still in situ?

hammer it with a flat head, crack the piston and take it out

Orange Crush – one of the brake pads fell out, I didn't notice it and braked and the piston was ripped off by the rotor. Pretty good with 25 miles of a route still to go 🙂

I did that as well – let me know if you sort it, I might try and fix mine at some point…

I managed to pull mine out with pliers although I did get sprayed with Dot fluid for my trouble

If only there was some way of applying pressure to the back of the piston. In the absence of pneumatic pressure, some kind of hydraulic circuit would be extremely useful…

In the absence of pneumatic pressure, some kind of hydraulic circuit would be extremely useful…

😆

Awkward. So there's probably not enough meat to do what I suggested.

However…………..it sounds like the piston may be partially out which means that you could (carefully) drill a hole through it without hitting the back of the caliper. Screw a self tapper in to the hole, or cut a thread in it and screw in a bolt, then pull this to extract piston.

Failing that try drilling lots of small holes in it until the centre falls apart so you can get an angled tool in to pull it. Any hammer activity might end up damaging the caliper.

Easiest way is to keep the whole system fully bled, take the pads out and pump the piston out…done….failing that a track pump with a football attatchment and some gaffa take to take up the space where the hose would screw in does the job…just watch it though, it'll fire across the room once out so put a towel over and round it.