I have a 2005 Sportster and I removed the rear wheel to install some stuff. Anyway, after reinstalling the wheel the brake has really lost it's correct pressure. The brake line was not removed, no fluid lost or air introduced. Pads are seated correctly. Pedal just does not produce adequate piston travel for the pads to be effective. I have rebled the brake and no air was found. The caliper alignment, however, does not look completely parallel but mounting bolts are correct.
Do not have a service manual......must be missing some important step. Any advice other than "take it to a shop"?

 

Im not familar with the wheel removal on that bike, but is it possible you have a spacer on the wrong side or something similar?

 

There is not bind or twist on the pads or brake line?

Just a thought-
BRUCE

 

May sound dumb but do you need to replace the pads

 

Is the pedal push feel, spongy or hard? Is the pedal travel the same as before the work? How did you bleed the brakes. I know a lot of questions.

If you have reinstalled everything correctly it has to be air in the system and if you did'nt bleed correctly you can put a lot more in it.

 

Thanks for your replies. Turns out that the prob was the clip securing the lower edge of the pads was turned around causing the pads to not seat downward enough. This caused the whole caliper to attemp to rest too high on it's mount and resulted in the piston to not be perp to the disk. This was a very subtle problem causing a very definite (bad) result. The bike only has 40 miles on it.
Thanks guys !

 

Glad you got it figured out, it's those little things that cause the big problem sometimes.