If the front forks were too tight or improperly spaced at wheel, could it possibly cause an alignment issue which in turn causes the caliper to be just a little out of align pushing in the brake pads as the bike rolls forward or reverse which gives the impression of front brake pressure failure?

I have an 03 FXD which looses front pressure when I roll forward or reverse. My rotor, caliper, lines, master cylinder are all brand new. I replaced them each because I have been trying to solve this pressure issue for 2 weeks now. The only thing I can think of is the front forks are too tight at the bottom causing the caliper to be angled slightly in relation to the rotor. The fact it did this before the new parts tells me it's something that I didn't replace or take better look at.

The front forks do seem to be angled slightly but this could also be visual perception causing me to think it's angled in. ALl I know is I can bleed the brakes with vacuum, manually with a friend, bleed master, caliper etc, gone through a gallon of dot 5 and the handle can be rock solid pressure, yet the moment it moved backwards or forwards even 5 inches the handle goes to the bar and requires about 4 pumps to get it solid again. I have swapped the Master and Caliper out 3 times each thinking I kept getting bad ones.

I am at a loss so any help would be welcomed.

Thanks,
Brian

 

is rotor warped?
Was front end changed?
Was bike in accident?

 

U hit the nail on the head bud... So I bought a "Supposed" new rotor from a salvage bike shop because he said he had bought out a Harley shop that was closing and it was new stock. That was originally the first thing I replaced was rotor, followed by bleeding, followed by Caliper, then Master, then lines. Nothing was working. I went back to the guy yesterday and said that it still would not hold pressure when bike would make any movement and that should be an indication of warped rotor. He kept trying to tell me "No it's not possible. The pressure in the system would push the pads back to the rotor even if it was warped". I am not sure where this feller got this logic from buy in my head and heart I knew he was wrong. So I come home tonight, seen your post and thought to myself, just maybe that new rotor is warped from sitting. So I throw it all back on stand, take front off ground, spin the wheel, and I can physically see the rotor pushing the pad back in and leaving it there as the rotor is warped.

It could be a rim issue I am not sure but I have verified this supposed new rotor moves in and out as it spins around. So I am going to take this one back and go buy a new rotor from Southside Harley tomorrow. Done screwing with sketchy places just to save 50.00, it's not worth my headache to deal with crap like this. In his defense, it could very well be the wheel, however I do not notice a wobble in the wheel when I turn it around or where the rotor mounts so I don't know. I will have it balanced tomorrow so I can see if it's a bent center wheel issue.

Just for notes, the bike was wrecked, however it was hit from behind while at a stop and at very slow speeds. Just enough to crack the swing arm pivot housing from back of transmission. The bike fell over, but landed on rear bag and handle bar, front end never hit at all or even hard for that matter. The only other thing I notice on front end since wreck was a vibration when turning corners at speed, but I attribute this to the dunlops as I found a hundred other threads with people having same issue from the same tires.

Thanks for suggesting the rotor again, made me go out and double check a supposed new part.

 

Hub of the rim could be bent..doubtful..it would require a nice hit to cause it.
Would it be possible to place unmounted rotor on a glass table in order to confirm it is the rotor? Very easy to bend a rotor if a wheel is dropped or banged against a wall.
For notes: a warped rotor could make the bike feel like there was no brake and interfere with brake bleeding.
A friend just went through a similar situation when a dealer bent his rear rotor during a tire installation. Dealer accepted no responsibility. He took it to an Indy who marked rotor (on bike) and gently bent rotor into place. All is well now.
You can test stuff to see if warped with some tape and a marker.
Just tape marker to fork leg almost touching item to be tested.
If you want to go semi-pro for $35 Harbor Freight has a clamp on dial indicator that is rather good. If you have a 20% off coupon it becomes rather economical.
http://www.harborfreight.com/catalog...dial+indicator

 

I have one of their dial indicators. It's not to bad of a tool considering it's from HF. I used it when I blue printed my 383 I built for my camaro. I don't think the wheel is warped but I have been wrong before. I just know with the wheel and rotor in place, the rotor went straight and then I would see a dramatic dent and then straight again when rotating the wheel. I pulled the rotor off and could not see a noticiable warp when laying on concrete, although this was just a quick visual check as it was late when I yanked it. The wheel looks straight as well so today after work I am going to get the wheel tested and I am buying as new rotor from Southside HD. I bet this solves the problem right away. The rotor was only 40.00 from the guy so it's not much to be out. Just sucks I spent days and about 400.00 in parts from the guy when I didn't need to.