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Brakes

Checking your brakes and read your owners manual

Sun, 04/17/2011 - 20:29 — west
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Washing and polishing all that chrome dosen't make for a safe ride. Most of the public goes through rear brakes as fast as a rear tire. YOU, need to be looking at the WHOLE bike not just the BLING BLING. That also goes with READING the MANUAL. DO NOT mix the DOT 4 AND 5 brake fluids!

Question on brake noise

Wed, 10/15/2008 - 08:00 — jimmy

I own a 1998 Harley FXDS-Conv. Recently I have had a brake problem. The bike has approx. 38K, I put 20K on the bike myself, it was under extended warranty for 2 years, when I bought it used in 05 from a Harley Dealer. A little background, obviously I am not mechanically inclined and have almost all my work done by Harley or a Harley certified mechanic with several years experience that has his own shop after working at a couple of dealerships.

Recently, I had a rear brake rotor to warp. I replaced the rotor and pads, the brakes work fine, except for one symptom I encountered previously. Riding by myself, no problems. Riding two up, I cannot apply rear brakes fully, I hear a grinding nose (when rear brakes are applied only). Riding by myself I can lock the tire, no grinding. I had this symptom once before.

Approx. weight with rider + passenger 390 lbs., a little of a load on a Dyna, but it did it for over 2 years without this problem.

This spring I had a rear tire replaced, and had the brake pads replaced, I do this approx. every other tire change while I have the tire off. There was a problem with the brake pedal, two much play (pedal).

I went back and had the pedal height adjusted. The problem started after this. I had it checked out again before the rotor warped, they found nothing. Looked for suspension problems 2 up, or source of the grinding noise.

I suspect this was related to warping the rotor. Could adjustment on the pedal height cause this?

J.Bates
Cumming,GA.

Brake cleaning on Twin Cam's

Sat, 08/23/2008 - 08:00 — gabor

The following tools are required to service your calipers:

* One 1/4 inch twelve point socket
* One ten millimeter twelve point socket
* One 1 inch socket wrench
* One flat head screwdriver
* One phillips screwdriver
* One spray can high quality brake cleaner
* One torque wrench
* One pair replacement brake pads
* One bottle of Harley-Davidson brake fluid

There are two bolts holding each caliper on Harley-Davidson motorcycles. There are also two pins that hold the pads in place. If your motorcycle has two front calipers, please start by removing the caliper furthest away from the master cylinder, which on most Harley-Davidson motorcycles is the one on the left side of the motorcycle, or in other words on the side of the clutch lever.

The first step is to loosen the two pins that hold the pads in place with the one inch twelve point socket. Once this has been accomplished, remove the two bolts that secure the caliper to the front forks with your ten millimeter twelve point socket.

The caliper can then be gently removed from the rear of the motorcycle. Once the caliper has been removed, turn the caliper over so that you can see the condition of the pads. Leave the pads secured within the caliper and have someone else assisting you to pull on the front brake lever. As they do, notice how the pistons in the calipers are moving with the hydraulic fluid. The pistons that are furthest away from the source of hydraulic pressure will in all probability hardly move at all.

2007 Harley Roadking FLHP ABS

Fri, 08/03/2007 - 08:00 — sharon

I am a Motor Officer in moderate sized city in California. My department currently rides 2007 Harley Davidson Roadkings FLHP equipped with ABS. I recently experienced a front wheel lock during a training excercise at nearly 30 MPH. The front wheel locked for approximately 30 feet with the brake lever released.

I know HD had problems with crossed ABS lines in 2005, but haven't heard of anything recent. Do you or anyone know of any other HD ABS related failures since?

Well, were do I begin!

Wed, 10/05/2005 - 08:00 — gabor

I initially purchased a new 1998 Road King Classic with the infamous "Evolution" engine. Harley in the mid 1990s decided to offer fuel injected versions, I suspect due to EPA requirements. After less than five hundred miles of service the bike would not start and I had to bum start it to take it to the dealer. They thought that I had a malfunctioning battery and they replaced it with a new one. Once I returned home I noticed that there were brown stains all over my shiny white walled tire on the rear. I took it back and was told that it was battery acid and that they would replace the tire, rear rotor and any other parts that were acid stained. They thought that they had fixed the problem but wanted to wait to make certain prior to replacing the tire and other acid stained items. They finally had to call the factory for help and found that one of the wires was reversed right from the factory. That was the beginning of a nightmare for me. I ended up having five (5) upper ends, three stators, two motor mounts, one rear master brake cylinder failure, and at 39,990 miles Harley-Davidson decided to replace the bike with a 2000 year model Road King to avoid a law suite that I had intended to file against them.

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by Dr. Radut.