My master cylinder for the front brake on my SuperGlide is leaking a little bit. I tightened the two screws real tight and now it's worse. I ordered a new cover (paint all peeled off the old one) and new gasket, my question is "how tight do you tighten the screws to get a good seal?" I can't see anyway to torque it to a spec with a screwdriver, so how tight? Hand tight? Really tight? lightly tight? Thanks!

 

Same thing happen to me, don't know how tight, light tight would be my guess, is it under warranty? HD replaced mine.

 

Yea, it's under warranty, but the closest dealer is 60 miles away, so doing it myself is probably cheaper.

 

It happens. The master cylinder cover is very easy to over-tighten. I watch the rubber gasket as I'm tightening. I stop tightening as soon as it just starts to bulge out.

Hand tight. Surprisingly light. You're probably going to have to experiment to find the right amount.

 

Position the handle bars so that the resevoir is somewhat level. Take the cover off, wipe dry all surfaces, reassemble but just tighten the cover down till the rubber just starts to bulge out, it's not very much.

 

Thanks!

 

Same thing happened to mine while it was under warranty. Dealer replaced it.

 

Same thing happened to mine so I just bought a Chrome one. Like others said just good and snug will do it.

 

Here's another guy that just experienced the same problem. In 36 years of owning these animals, albeit only 2 with disc brakes, I never had the screws come lose, until now. Will always check them from now on as it could have been a disaster if that DOT 5 started splattering all over the place. Good advice on the "just enough to see the gasket begin to compress".

 

The service manual says 6-8 in/lb of torque on the master cylinder cover. They do make a screwdriver style torque wrench that will go down to 5 in/lb. We have them at work made by Snap-On. Mine was leaking until I loosened it up some. I still need to replace the gasket but haven't since it stopped leaking. I had the same issue...I tightened it up more and it leaked worse.