Im installing my 21" wheel and I had to do some mods for the brake caliper to line up. My question is how freely should the wheel move with caliper and brakes installed? I have everything mounted and bled the brakes but the wheel doesnt seem to move very freely while up on my hoist.

 

look at the brake caliper, there is the joint line where both halves come together. that line should lineup with the rotor, center of the rotor. If like that the caliper is in the right spot, if not you could have a drag from it.

 

If your talking bout the gap between the pads then yes I placed the rotor between the pads, bolted the caliper to the fork then bled the brakes. The tire spins but seems to have a bit of friction. Just wondering how much friction it should have. If I spin the wheel with a little force the wheel moves half a rotation but it stops

 

There will be a little drag as the pads will skim along the rotor but spinning only a half turn sounds pretty tight. It might be really pumped up, rock it a little with the brake applied and then push it around a little to see if it loosens up. What kind of "mods" did you make to the caliper? I would confirm that the rotor is centered and the caliper setting square to the rotor.

 

If the rotor is centered, it could be dirty pistons not letting the pads retract. There are no boots on the pistons, so the brake dust can gum up pretty quick. Take the wheel off, gently pump the brake until you can see the shiny part of the piston, then take a shoe lace soaked with brake cleaner and 'floss' around the pistons. You will need to pry the pads back apart to reinstall the wheel.

 

I made a bracket so I can install a caliper off of an 07 fxst on a 99 fatboy front end. My first post above I attached a pic of the bracket

 

Thanks everyone for the advice I will try cleaning out the caliper and flossing the piston

 

I had that same problem on my 08 flstc rear brakes after changing pads. Finally figured out is was the shim for the pads was too worn... replaced shim worked perfect after. My caliper was getting VERY hot before fixing it