Okay, I am going to be bleeding the brakes and flushin the system on teh 883 this morning and want to makes rue I have the correct brake fluid. According the service manual on page 1-57 (I think) it says the brake fluid is DOT 5. I talked to someone else who syas it is DOT 4. What is it? I need to have the right kind to do this job. thanks.

 

Id follow the manual dude.

 

Yeah, plus I already have a bottle of DOT 5

 

Just look at your front master cylinder cover, and should say it right on there.

 

Ditto - it's printed on the master cylinder covers.

 

The fluid appeared to be DOT 4 that was in the system, so I flushed it out and added DOT 5. It seems to be a bit firmer now. I cannot figure out what kind of an idiot put the wrong brake fluid in. Must have been at the stealer or something. I am off to get a mity vac type thing and do the rear now.

 

It will be interesting to see if you find any orange blobs in the fluid of the rear master cylinder, and if you do, it will also be interesting to see if you can bleed them out and be able to pump up brake pressure. For some reason that has not yet been determined, the 2004 and 2005 Sportster rear master cylinders get these orange blobs in the fluid, and then they often can't be bled out or won't pump up pressure. The fix is a master cylinder rebuild or replace.