Difficulty Retracting Rear Brake Calliper Piston

[OFI]

Been trying to do this for far too long now but I cannot get the brake piston to go back in.

I have a brake piston tool and it is positioned almost like this:

Except the piston is out too far so I am unable to slot the plate into place. I have tried just pushing it in anyway and turning with a socket but it only budged the first few mm and now it won't move at all.

Are the pistons threaded the entire length? Is it possible I pushed it out too far and it is not turning on its thread?

I have even gone as far as completely undoing the bleed nipple, disconnecting the brake line and disconnecting the handbrake cable so I have some fun bleeding ahead of me once this is back in

 

[Seat Gooner]

ram that plate in there them tools are useless with out one mate

 

[inliner_04]

Some cars are reverse threaded. Tbh haven't changed rear pads on my car, and as far as I remember all th mk4's I have changed them on have been normal thread, but just a thought for you.
If they are reverse threaded then you need a reverse threaded version of the tool you have

 

[LEE69]

The tool used on mine went clockwise if it helps.

 

[MJ]

all seat calipers turn clock-wise to retract the piston. If you cant slot the plate in the caliper then get 2 sets of vise-grips and clamp the plate to the caliper and once in place it should start to retract, the ideal of the tool is to turn the caliper and provide a slight pushing force.

 

[miscreant]

i used a pair of pipe grips to turn mine back in, turned it a little then pushed it back in turned it a little more etc, just be carefull of the gator on the piston.

 

[OFI]

Well after much swearing and pushing the whole piston back out again it seems I must have pushed it out too far in the first place and it just wasn't grabbing the thread!

It's all back together now but apparently I don't know the first thing about bleeding my brakes as I had to revert to handbrake after rolling forwards a couple of feet and unable to stop on the footbrake..

Watching Youtube videos now lol.