I now have an 01 FLHRC/I with about 25% left on the front pads. Don't feel any pressure on the brakes unless the front brake lever is pulled in about 3/4 of the way in. I do have a service manual, but was wondering if there could be any other quick checks prior to having to bleed the brakes as this is something i have yet to do in my short life as a harley owner. any help would be appreciated, if i am leaving any info out don't hesitate to ask. Thanks in advance!

 

You can at least check to see if there is air in the lines by using the procedure to bleed the brakes.&nbsp\\; If there isn't any air, I'd remove the calipers and clean the caliper pistons.&nbsp\\; With an '01 bike, there is a good chance that the pistons are not moving freely because of accumulated brake dust.&nbsp\\; The procedure is explained under "tech/tips" on the Lyndall brake pad website.&nbsp\\; It's a big oversight/omission from the HD Service Manual that it doesn't include this procedure in the brake pad changing section of the SM.&nbsp\\; I learned about it from a tech at my dealership.&nbsp\\; The elimination of the excess travel in the lever was a "miracle" in the transformation from a soft lever to a hard lever.
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The optimal fix (which I would do if this '01 was "new" to me) would be to buy the caliper seal kit (about $6 a side&nbsp\\;IIRC) and replace the piston seals in conjunction with cleaning the pistons.&nbsp\\; The Lyndal piston cleaning procedure worked for a while, but the soft brake returned and was cured by replacing the piston seals on my '04 EG with 40K miles at the time.

 

Thanks Harleypingman. I will definitely give this a shot!

 

Hey mgoblue3 try this. Take a tool and push the brake pads out away from the rotors. Do one side at a time. Be careful not to scratch the rotors when doing this. Push the outside and inside pad out. Then pump the brake lever until the pads are back tight on the rotor. Do this about 3 times. When finish do the other side. You should see a difference in the brake lever. Brought my bike in for a recall on the back tail light a few years ago and they said that my front brake were spongy. I asked what they did and they said they&nbsp\\;removed the caliper on each side and pushed the pads out and pumped the brake lever. And can you believe, they did not charge me for this. Like I said, careful not to scratch or gouge the rotors. I use a wide blade tool used to remove base boards, etc. to do this with a rag on the rotors. If you do not have a tool to do this just remove the calipers and push them.

 

I find that at about 25% mine do the samething. I just change them, takes about 20 minutes to do and they are back to full function.