I bled my rear brake on my 2008 rocker. I took the caliper off and tried to manually push the pistons back in so I could install the new brake pads. The pistons were freaking almost impossible to push back into the caliper. I eventually pushed them in but it was hard man.

My question is this. Are those pistons supposed to be that hard to push back into the caliper after the brakes have been bled?

 

When the piston goes out so far, they can get stuck. Might be what happened to yours. Could have been a little dirt or something hanging them up. But the fact you got them in means they're fine. Reinstall, bleed, and ride. I wouldn't worry about it. Once you get them in a little, they slide all the way back in and push out any remaining fluid.

 

I see.

Before I bled them I pressed the foot brake a few times and it seemed like only the bottom piston was being pushed out. The top one isn't move at all.

Is that normal?

 

Your caliper pistons are full of crap, mine were sticking and grinding all the time.
You get a bootlace and some brake cleaner and floss your caliper pistons. It works like a hot damn and my brakes are now quiet
Here is a link for you to read and and further down the thread (Post 21) is a link to how to clean your brake caliper pistons

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/softa...-question.html

 

Thank you for the link. Useful information but just to make sure. The trick is to get the pistons to stick out as far as possible, douse a shoe lace with brake cleaner and floss it around the pistons?

 

Basically you got the idea. Just don't have the pistons come out too far on one side or they pop out...I just kept on working the stuck pistons with the cleaner soaked lace and a baby toothbrush till I was able to push them in by hand and then squeeze the lever to have them come against the plywood insert I used all at the same time, shined er all up and bobs your uncle.

 

+1....

 

Yes. Or spray cleaner on the piston which will wash off the brake dust, then floss.

 

You left this bit out of your original post. I was right about them being gunked then. The shoelace trick should do the job.

 

Seems to me what was happening is that instead of 4 pistons pushing both sides, he had the 2 pistons only pushing 1 side, moving the caliper back and forth as would the other brake pad and the other side just moved out just a little too far and maybe wedged themselves and wouldn't retract.
Ya.. a good cleaning and you'll see the diffferance. practice on the front caliper first, its much easier to work with than the rear caliper. To do 1 brake you may a well do all the brakes.
I didn't like the spray cleaner so I just sprayed it into a coffee cup with a lid and used that to dunk instead of spraying brake cleaner everywhere but if you wanna poly the bike up, its your buisness.