Except for pipes and air cleaner, I have a stock '98 Dyna Convertible with mid-mount pegs. Shortly after buying the bike, I had to rebuild the rear master cylinder because the rear brakes just didn't work right. Because of that, I never got a feel for how far the rear brake pedal should travel before the pads actually do their job and start squeezing the rotor. After the M/C rebuild, the brakes work okay but, the brake pedal travels probably 3/4" before I can feel the pads engage the rotor. There is an adjustment on the brake rod that runs from the pedal to the M/C but, that only affects the resting height of the pedal. Is there a way to adjust anything that will reduce the travel of the pedal before the pads actually do their thing? I have a '94 FXR and '05 Dyna with mids and none of those pedals are like this one. Anyone have any ideas? Maybe I screwed something up when I rebuilt the cylinder? Try bleeding them again? I dunno so, here I am.

 

I recently learned there is a residual valve in the MC, for disk brakes it keeps 2 psi past the MC. My drum brakes had a disk MC, so I had to put a 10 psi residual valve in-line.
Do your research on that subject.

 

When I did mine, I noticed there as a large and constant stream of air coming out of my drain line from the rear caliper. Given the fresh fluid and flush and constant stream of air - the only conclusion I could arrive at given the lack of leak of anywhere was that air was coming in from the rear master cylinder. I haven't rebuilt it yet but the problem hasn't ever gone away and that is the only place it could be coming from.

 

Check the oil level? Might be low. Then bleed some more while at it

 

I think my next step will be to see how far the pedal travels before the stop light switch is activated since it's activated by pressure and not by position. I might have a better idea of where to start looking. My guess would be that if it takes only a short distance then I have a problem somewhere between the master cylinder and the pads. If it still seems like it goes too far before the switch turns on the lamp, I have a problem between the pedal and the end of the push rod that goes into the cylnder.

 

Without knowing what you did for the rebuild, it sounds like there is still air in the system.

 

That's certainly a possibility although the feel of the brakes seem to be fine. Not spongy or weak when they actually start working. Gonna give that a shot (bleeding) and see what happens.

 

Is the res full?
Needs to be filled to take up slack and increase feel