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I finally managed to finish one of my long term projects, and it actually works. I use water pressure to push the pistons out of brake calipers. Our water pressure here in my basement is ~100 psi, which is enough for this job if the calipers are in pretty good shape, but so often they are not and I spend hours coaxing the suckers apart. Plus, in one corner of the basement I probably have a dozen calipers that I haven't been able to budge since they sat in someone's barn for too long. What I've needed was a way to boost the water pressure here by a factor of 3 to 5 so that I could be assured of success with minimal difficulty. I had tried converting a grease gun, but that leaked too much and didn't have enough displacement, so I made my own hand pumped master cylinder. It uses old VW ATe MC internal parts and has an aluminum housing that I can take apart fairly easily when I'm done, so that things don't tend to corrode. I'm still using the grease gun handle from the Mark I pump, so that purchase was not entirely wasted. Tonight I finally got everything plumbed together and assembled, and I took apart 3 calipers that I had thought were completely hopeless. I don't actually know yet if there are any parts here that I will be able to use in the future, but at least I now know that this job will be a lot easier. One of the pistons was so tightly rusted to its compensating pin that it pulled the pin out of the caliper body when the piston finally came loose. I still need to make a better fixture to plug the hole where the first piston came out, but I have a couple of ideas about that, and maybe the one I already have will be good enough for most calipers.. Just had to share.... ;-) -- ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Shameless link for search engines: http://listarchive.type3.org ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~