I have been researching on the forum my "soft/spongey" front brake. It appears there is (from searching the forum) on the 01-04 years the calipers lacked dust covers and around every 5k miles you have to go in there and clean them really well to keep them from seizing the pistons and reducing travel which in turn causes the soft brake.

For me that just sounds like a pain, I am thinking some new calipers like Brembro or an updated HD caliper that I wouldn't have to clean as often. So has anyone done this to cure the spongey front brake on the older bikes? Which parts did you decide to go with?

Thanks,

*********Update **********
I purchased a master cylinder rebuild kit and a used caliper from a 2011 FLSTN which had less than 300 miles use on it. Rebuilt the master cylinder and installed new caliper. Brakes are stiff now like a brand new bike.

Tried cleaning the front caliper a few times which helped but never made it like new. Newer brakes are better.

 

Are you still using the factory rotors, or did you change them out?

The HD factory rotors from that period (the ones with the "wavy cutouts") are prone to warping. All it takes is a bump the right way, and they can get pushed "out of line".

This can result in the brake pads getting spread a bit "wide" in the calipers -- resulting in that squishy feel when you go to apply the brakes.

Before you get into big $$$ changing calipers, check that the rotors are still true.

If they aren't, a set of floating rotors could make for a good improvement.

 

If bleeding them doesn't help, replace the lines w/ braided stainless.

 

If your bleeding the lines, I found Bleeding the Banjo bolt at the Master Cylinder can fix the problem. You need a helper and a towel for this. I really don't know your bike that well, but nothing works better than brembro. I have the pm six piston calipers simply because I thought they looked better. (Whatever) If you have floating calipers, a warped disk will make things spongy.

 

I had mine in the shop last year and the mechanic mentioned the same to me. I let him do the job for like $60. They felt like new brakes. As soon as you touched the lever you had brakes. Now I have to squeeze almost halfway before I got brakes. Had it done just before we rode the Dragon, nice to have good brakes there. 10K later they are spongy again. I would also like to hear from anyone that has done the job as I would like to do it as well.

 

My brother's '03 RK had the same front brake problem..... repeated bleeding was just a bandaid..... swapped them out for some '06 caliper takeoffs two years ago and have had no problems since.... I have Hawg Halters on my '03 FXST, so it was never a problem on her... Harley knew these calipers were junk and did nothing about them.....

Hope this helps.....

 

The brakes on my 98 RKC get spongy after several thousand miles. I take them off every 5k, inspect and clean everything, then apply dielectric grease to the pins. Put it all back together and it will stop on a dime. Takes about 20 minutes to do both fronts.