2005 FLHT Brakes

[bfred]

Welp, I took some time searching for an answer here but to no specific avail...

I replaced my front and rear brake pads yesterday and really no problems
encountered, as I have done this a couple times on this bike.

What my concern is that now my brake lever is really tight. Takes next to no
pressure to engage the pads to rotor and when test riding, there seems to
be "more than normal" brake drag. My manual talks about a clogged master
cylinder relief port which might cause the drag, however makes no indication
as to where it is? I'm assuming internal to the reservoir?

The manual also states to operate the brake lever, after pad replacement to ensure
the brakes/master cyclinder operation is functional, and with the reservoir cover off,
to slowly pull the lever in and observe a small squirt of fluid break the fluid surface,
to ensure all parts are operating normally.

I've done this and things seem to be operating normally, until I place the master cyclinder
cover back on, and the lever is tight as heck, along with what I would consider excessive
drag. Just wonder what I'm missing, as in these summer temps I don't want to warp
rotors, or glaze the new pads as that shit is getting expensive!

Any help certainly appreciated.

[Wide]

They may just need to seat back in place.

As long as they dont brake by themself you should be good


I like to bevel the pads before I install then so you dont get that snowplow buildup in front that causes squeeling

[bfred]

Thanks Wide!

I have beveled the pad edges using a little coarse emery cloth.

Cleaned pistons up well when disassemled along with applying a
little caliper pin grease to the pins the pads ride on.

After searching through my manual again today, I totally glossed over
the procedure for aligning the front wheel. The one using a 7/16"
drill bit in the right side of axle, pull the right fork untill it contacts
the drill bit, then tighten the axle holder nuts to 132-180 inch-pounds.

I think this is my problem. Will report back to this thread after a trip to
the garage tonight. :dumbass:

[RacingOrangeRoadster]

I would think the floating caliper would allow for that much travel. Did you take the wheel off to change the brakes?

[bfred]

Yes. I had the wheel off as I was installing new tires as well.
In fact, tires, brake pads, oil and filter, trans fluid, primary
fluid and chain adjustment, ect. Pretty much down for a week
catching up on some needed maintenance. My Avons were showing
some cord...guess I got my money out of them.

Sure enough, the right fork was "out almost an 1/8" just enough to make a difference
I suppose. I followed the steps in the manual, loosening the axle nuts and
using the 7/16" drill bit (high titanium content borrowed from the space shuttle)
in the axle hole, I pressed the right fork until conact was made with the drill
bit and retighten the axle nuts to spec. 10 minute job and Viola! No more pad/rotor drag.

Thanks for the advice guys.

Felt good to ride in today. Been a week. I was having withdrawals.

[RacingOrangeRoadster]

Good deal.

When I was in the Air Force we had an Annual Maintenance task that required you to damn near take the whole Radar Apart and give you 3 days to do it. Instead of taking 1 thing at a time apart and testing it before they moved on to the next section, someone would invariably take all the shit apart at one time and then when they put it back together it would have multiple problems and you wouldn't know what to fix first.

[bfred]

Funny...unless you were the one troubleshooting.

We had a similar system in the Navy on board ships.

Everything, and I mean everything on that vessel had a
complete maintenance program with synchronous steps
to be executed for each shipboard device/component.
Of course things such as firestations might be maintenenced
more often than say a hatch gasket, but you get the drift.
Everything, however fell into the the Navy's Planned Maintenance System.

That's right...PMS.