Stiff front brake lever

[lastwhiteman]

Where'd you get pictures of my sandbox?

 

[Dorney]

I don't think this problem has anything to do with the caliber. Did you try adjusting the free play screw as said ?

Dave

 

[rebeltaz83]

Same reasons I come to this site. I never seen anybody dumb down to name calling or anything else. Hate to see it now, I just posted to sew if anybody else has this trouble, and if so how they fixed it. I'd hate to rebuild the master just to have the same problem. Trouble is I work from 630am to 630pm Monday thru Friday and sometimes Saturday. So you can see when I have time to tinker with my bike is time that could be spent riding. And also I have no garage anymore after relocating 12 hours south from upstate NY the great outdoors is my garage now. So weather permitting I'm gonna try to bleed my front brakes first as long as those pesky screws don't strip out on the lid i should be good. I did find that adjuster acre on there inside of my brake lever, should I back that off first. I still think a bleed is due the fluid is getting murky in the site glass. Thanks for the help fellas I got allot of info so far. I'll start with the easy stuff I know I can do with limited tools. Any bigger stuff and ol max is gonna have go to the Dr. And he doesn't have health insurance lol. Think obamacare would cover it? Lol.

 

[DMAN999]

Personally I've never had this issue when installing new pads.
I always use brake cleaner and a toothbrush to clean the caliper pistons off when I remove the old worn pads.
Then I crack the caliper nipple just a tad and push the pistons all the way back in before installing new pads.

I'd put a piece of plastic tubing on the front caliper nipple and crack it loose and give the brake lever a Very Light squeeze (like 1/8-1/4 of the pull) and then tighten the nipple back up.
That mat relieve the pressure just enough to fix your issue.

 

[lastwhiteman]

This may or may not help.
From Clymer's 2003 copyrighted VMAX service, repair, maintenance manual.
Not the best manual, or the worst but still has decent info.

 

[wildweasel_pt]

Where'd you get pictures of my sandbox?

You can keep the sand box. I'd take the other box

 

[rebeltaz83]

Finally got a free dry sunny weekend. I'm about 90 minutes from Columbia SC that got hammered with rain last weekend. We got 12 inches here where I'm at. But I bled the front brakes, pulled the cover off the master just peek inside. Clean, just looks like old fluid. But I now have a little bubble in the sight window. And I adjusted that screw on the backside of the lever. They feel alot better, but it's a little stiff, but I can deal with it now. Thanks for the help everybody!!! This place is great!!!!

 

[Fire-medic]

Just make sure the pivot pin is greased. You ca disassemble it & add grease to the pin, or just periodically use WD-40 into the area of the pivot pin securing the lever.

Finally got a free dry sunny weekend. I'm about 90 minutes from Columbia SC that got hammered with rain last weekend. We got 12 inches here where I'm at. But I bled the front brakes, pulled the cover off the master just peek inside. Clean, just looks like old fluid. But I now have a little bubble in the sight window. And I adjusted that screw on the backside of the lever. They feel alot better, but it's a little stiff, but I can deal with it now. Thanks for the help everybody!!! This place is great!!!!

 

[rebeltaz83]

Just make sure the pivot pin is greased. You ca disassemble it & add grease to the pin, or just periodically use WD-40 into the area of the pivot pin securing the lever.

Yeah, I think I'm gonna do both levers, I did the double d clutch mod, so it should help with the pull on that too. I did that with my 78 goldwing what a difference I tell ya. It's worth the 5 minutes to pull the levers off and grease the pivots. I'm glad you reminded me as I got busy working on the wife's car, and then her bike. 99 shadow, start button shorted out, and melted the contacts inside so it wouldn't start the bike, had to jump the solonoid like an old Ford, or a lawnmower lol. But it got it home. Kind of a dumb setup I think. It shuts off the power to the headlight so it gets full battery voltage to crank the bike, it got hit internally and melted the contacts down into the plastic holder, only fix is to buy the entire kill switch/start button harness for 80 bucks. Might do something with a horn button, or a one way ticket switch like NASCAR lol. Title switch for head light, and one for the starter.