I have a 06 RK custom and the brake light came on a few days ago. I tracked it down to the front brake lever on the bar. When the control assembly is all together and tightened down, the brake light comes on and stays on. When the assembly is apart and I depress the front brake switch with my finger, the brake light goes out. So the question is, can this switch work when depressed with the finger but the spring not have enough pressure to work when the assembly is on the bar and tight? Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.

kkrommm

 

IIRC the switch housing and master cylinder are hooked together in such a way that
they can't be too far apart, but you might want to loosen up the master cylinder, push it all the way up against the switch housing, then tighten it back down.. try again.
If it's still not working, then see if you push the brake lever away from the bar, the light will go off.. If it does, then your brake master cylinder plunger is sticking and not returning fully... it does this because the bore is dry and the o-ring hangs up on it.
If you pick out the master cylinder plunger seal, push the plunger in and shoot some rubber compatible lube (silicone) up there, put the seal back in and exercise it a bit.
the plunger will come back out to where it should, holding the lever tightly against the brake light switch button. Third possibility, the tip of the switch plunger is broken off and the lever can't reach it...

Hogdoctor

 

Hey hogdoctor, the solution was #3 on your list, the switch was broken. a new one $26 and a little more care putting it all back together and all is good again. Thanks for the advice KKrommm

 

If you have to press the switch in order to get the brake light to go off then more then likely when you recently took everything apart or replaced your levers you broke the tip of the switch. It will appear to be obviously broken and is relatively easy to fix. Just use extra care when replacing it again as it doesnt take much to break it.

 

good to hear you found the problem.. the factory says to wedge a piece of cardboard between the lever and casting to hold it partially pulled back while you assemble it, so
the lever doesn't hit the button and break it off... I just remove the brake lever until
it's together, install it last.

Hogdoctor

 

I recently did this same thing when removing my brake lever...There's a small little plastic button which sits atop the little rubber boot...if the button is gone then you'll see there is a hole (.100) in the boot for the button shaft to sit/slide in...

I didn't want to replace the switch again so I took a small set screw and threaded it into the rubber portion to make contact with guts inside the switch and have just a portion of the head of the set screw out past the boot for the lever to make contact with...Surprised me that it worked but it does and hasn't given me any trouble at all since I rigged this together...