last night on my way home I was losing pressure on the rear brakes, soI just stepped on it. It had some pressure for a split second then bam nothing. I get to where I'm going and press the brake and it shoots brake fluid out the side of the hose.
A while back I had to install a new rear stoplight switch under the oil tank and I think I forgot to zip tie the brake line back in place and it contacted the chain. I noticed a few months ago that the braided cable was damaged but the line still held pressure so I secured it with zip ties and forgot about it. The hole is where the braided armour was damaged:
Does the orientation of the brake tee matter?
i have the line from the master cylinder going into the top of the tee, the brake light switch in the middle of the tee and the line going to the caliper on the other top of the tee.
When i I put it all back together and bleed it , it worked but the pedal was very soft, which is why I step on it so hard in the first place. I don't appear to have any leaks.
was thinking about take caliper apart and cleaning also. Any advise on this? I am pretty sure the master cylinder is working fine. I mean if it held pressure enough to blow a hole in a weak spot of the line I would assume it is fine.
Each time I read one of your posts I have to try and figure out what year is the bike. This time now I have to try to remember what is this brake T. OK, so is it the rear brake hydraulic switch? Whatever, I do not recall what this part looks like from your description.
Anyway, for a hydraulic T junction it should not matter which line is connected to which terminal.
On my 1978 there is a T-junction for the front dual brakes. Line from master cylinder in at the top; line to each caliper out from the two sides. It is most convenient to hook up this way but it is simply and empty fitting - any of the three lines can be hooked up to any terminal.
On that bike, after months of weak brakes, after rebuilding the master cylinder and both calipers, after cleaning/replacing brake lines => I discovered that the T-junction was crudded up inside. I cleaned it out and had excellent [for an IronHead] brakes from then on
I had a 1980 so I should be able to recall this, But... So the brake line comes out of the master cylinder, runs up the outside of the sprocket cover, across to the left side, makes a 90` turn and goes into the brake light switch. The switch has an red and an orange wire. From the switch the brake line runs to the caliper.
I do not recall a T, just one line in and one line out. What am I missing?
This is the T was talking about, it is half way between the master and the caliper. Anyway when I took it apart there was some gunk in there. There was more gunk in the caliper. I got it all cleaned up and put back together. I reused the seal and dust boot so we will see if it works ok for now. The dust boot looked pretty bad but the seal looked ok. it blead a lot easier with out all that gunk in there. It's raining today so didn't get to test ride it yet.
OK, now I remember it. I expect that you have found the problem. I have had the same experience. I always re-used the seal and boot altho I think that the boot was better than what you described. Those parts are readily available from the usual sources [J&P Cycles etc].
09-02-2017, 01:57 PM
Busted rear brake line
