If try to place a piston past 16777217 (or -16777217) facing upwards, it is very difficult to place it upward in certain places. Along the x 16777217 (and subsequent lines) moving north/south, it is possible to place upward in strange ways, and also along the z 16777217 line and subsequent. I have not been able to figure out how to place it every time yet, although it seems to be related to the South/East direction.

Happens both in Survival and Creative with both Sticky and Regular Pistons.

I have uploaded a video showing this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKuiymEN5zc

From MC-88328:

Affected coordinates in a chunk:
1
5
9
13
The screenshot shows the result of trying to place pistons facing upwards. The lapis lazuli blocks mark the 0,0 corner; the redstone blocks mark the 15,15 corner.

Code analysis by marcono1234: https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-4132?focusedCommentId=320335&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel#comment-320335