Front Brake Question

[Dresser]

I've got an 04 Road King. The front brake lever in my opinion is to soft and travels to far. I looked at the pads they're good. I'm going to bleed the wheel cylinders tonight are there anything quirks with that work?

Are there any quirks with the front brakes as a whole?

I'm also thinking about buying the MOCO add on cruise control kit for the bike. Does any one have any experience installing it? If so how does it work?

[road-dawgs1]

clean the pistons

[00FHHRCI]

Greetings,
I've had the same issue.  I believe to correct it the piston in the brake cylinder gets dirty.  You can "exercise" your brake.  Remove your caliper and pull the front brake handle in while watching the cylinder.  When the cylinder extends, you may want to wipe it off or spray with WD40.  Push the cylinder back in.  This may take a C-clamp.  Put one end of the C-clamp into the cylinder bore and the other end of the C-clamp on the back side of the cylinder.  Be sure to use a rag between the back side of the cylinder and the C-clamp so you don't scratch the cylinder housing.  Do this a couple of times.  Do not let the cylinder extend to much as it will come out of the housing.  Finally take the C-clamp and push the cylinder back in and reinstall on your bike.  Activate your front brake a couple of times after you're finished exercising your brake to check.  Check your brake fluid level when done.

[Ed Y]

There's a well written tech tip at Lyndall Racing Brake site (tech area) on how to periodically do maint on the HD 4 piston calipers.

[HarleyInNH]

Dresser: MOCO Cruise is relatively easy.

You'll remove the front fairing shell, seat and left side cover.(maybe move a few other small things around.)

Install the control motor, wire in the elect, route the control cable, replace the right-hand control pod, button it back up (in a nutshell)

Complete instructions come with it but of course, as always, having the Shop Manual is the only way to go.

Did mine 4 years ago. No issues since.

On a side note: Just be careful not to lose the Deutsch conncetor internal spacer that keeps the pins aligned. Lost mine some time ago and finally traced the problem down and got it resolved.

[RK101]

Ed just sent that to a friend who is having that problem. I just printed it out and put it in my bike files. Thanks

[PaBagger]

I have an 03 Road King Classic with the same problem, however I think it has more to do with the brake line and not the pistons. The reason I say this is because in the summer my lever is soft with a lot of travel. In the colder weather the brake lever feels like new. I think others have switched to braided lines for the same reason.
Just something else for you to concider.

[CrazyRay]

While you are at it, you might want to change the brake fluid. It makes a big difference. What I did was draw the old fluid out of the master cylinder with a plastic syringe, be careful not to let air into the hole at the bottom. Then refilled with new dot 5 then bled the lines until new oil came through. Top off master cylinder again. Pretty easy.

Ray

[PETE-NAM68]

Crazy-Ray, You said DOT5. What year bike? I hope you didn't mix it in with DOT4.

[CrazyRay]

Pete, mine's a '99 it takes dot 5. Thanks for lookin out for me though. Should have said dot of your choice I guess.

[restyling]

All my Electra Glides, 88,93,98,01,06 had soft brake feel or pull. My 08 Dyna has steel braided brake lines and the pull difference is outstanding. I would look into it.

[crazy joe]

I put cruise control on mine last summer piece of cake just follow the directions

[ROADKINGKIM]

Not to hijack but can you put factory cruise on a carb bike? Kim