Anyone ever experience a fire while riding on the rear brake lite swx? Just back from a long ride (many thousands of miles), 2 days later (not that the ride had anything to do with it) the fire breaks out while riding locally.

Dealer didn't seem to upset by the whole thing. Researched potential causes and nothing came up. Replaced swx and some wiring and split the total repair bill with me (thought that was reasonable to even suggest that).

Seems very odd that just out of the blue this could happen without popping a fuse.

 

Sounds like the rear brake pressure switch spewing out brake fluid. Common thing in the touring models from what I am reading. I just had mine quit, but my leak was a very slow one. I would imagine some of the more violent spewing switches would cause a bunch of smoke and possibly a fire, seeing as the switch is near the exhaust.

Good luck with that.....
-J

 

is your bike still under warranty? Why didn't the dealership cover the total amount?

 

My rear switch just went bad while
Riding last week. No leaks on it though. There is something wrong with those switches for so many to be going out.

 

Search this topic my 09 FLHTCU did the same thing and smoked the wiring harness. Replaced last year under warranty. The dealer in Ft. Worth TX. indicated that they had seen many of these failures. The root cause was a "Bad Switch".

 

If the switch was spewing fluid there would be a loss of rear brakes...or a real spongy pedal.

 

If the switch failed or the wiring connection became loose and vibrated, it could cause intermittent connection and sparks with no increase in current. Ergo no fuse blowing. If you couple this with a pinhole leak of brake fluid you have lots of air, heat, and fuel, a perfect mix for a fire.

I don't know how common this problem is though. Yours is the first that has come to my knowledge FWIW, and you get what you pay for if your lucky.'

 

I didn't have the fire but last year I was on a ride and went to set Cruise and it wouldn't set. when I got home took it to the dealer they replaced the brake light switch the tail light bulb and the rear lens. I have a '09 flhtcu, the dealer said they are seeing this. They didn't charge me anything, I would talk to your dealer about charging you they should have taken care of it, that switch shouldn't have failed.

 

@Geezer - You're absolutely right, the pedal was mushy and I had no brake light, which was my primary clue that the rear brakes were probably out of fluid for some reason. When I looked at my bike closer there was a tiny drip coming out of the switch, between the connector blades. The drip was so slow that I had to look at it more than once to find it. This was the start of my rear brake journey.

Update to my previous post -

I found out that the rear brake line switch is not an uncommon problem nor an uncommon part ether. After some hunting, I found a part on the Dennis Kirk website and posted the part number in a different thread, my problem was that I drive daily and HATE driving my wife's Heritage for both the reasons of ride disappointment as well as listening to the moaning and groaning of using her bike. LOL I did some more digging and found a post from someone stating that the switch is a common one and was easily found at a local parts dealer using a 1970 VW Beetle brake pressure switch. I found this to be a true statement. Seeing as I ride daily, I took a 2AM trip to the local 24hr Advance Auto Parts store and picked up one of these switches and it works like a champ. The exact part is a Beck/Arnley P/N# 201-1087 switch and it's about 1/3 the cost of the Harley OEM one ($7.25). I'll take my chances with a off-brand seeing as the OEM ones are junk according to the MANY threads I am seeing about people replacing them more than once on bikes that are only a couple years old.

New info:
Once I replaced the switch, it seemed I was good to go, but my issues were worse than expected. Once I replaced the switch, I performed the necessary brake bleeding to get the air out of the brake lines from replacing the switch. Once I bled the brakes and ride tested it, all seemed good. About a 2 days later, my spongy brake problem CAME BACK! Expecting to see the brake switch issue again, I went right to the switch to see if that's where the leak was, and I was surprised to find no leak there. After some poking around, I found that I heard a faint hissing noise when I pressed the pedal really hard (bike was not running and it was nice and quiet/no radio like I normally do when working on vehicles). Upon further inspection, I found where the brake line was work down by friction and caused a small hole on the brake line, right where the clutch cable comes out of the motor and rides the frame towards the front of the bike. I had the clutch cable replaced under warranty 2 years ago because the cable seal leaked while under warranty. The cable was rubbing on the brake line and eventually rubbed through the rubber protective sleeve and into the line, enough to cause the new leak. I was (sort of) delightfully surprised to find that the replacement rear brake line was only $85 at my local dealer. I just replaced that line tonight and am happy to say that though not a hard install, but what a goofy setup. Only took about an hour and a half to do it, but I hate working with brake fluid, just because of what the product does to paint. Mike, check yours and see if by any chance you had the same issue. Brake fluid is highly flammable and if the switch is leaking or you had the same issue as me, it may be a clue as to where your fire came from. The rear brake line runs parallel to the right side pipes, all the way back (until it goes up and onto the swing arm to the caliper). I think that revealed this second leak was the need to suddenly stop because of an idiot on the road, so I jammed both the front and rear brakes to avoid a wreck. I think the jamming of the rear brake caused the final burst of the hairline thin brake line that was rubbed to oblivion. ) Unfortunately, the bike is no longer under warranty, so they would have denied the repair, luckily this was under $100 to fix for the line, the new brake fluid and the original switch issue.

So glad to know I'll be back on the road again tomorrow. See ya, off to put another 40K miles on my Ultra! Good luck with your issue, keep us posted on the results.