front brake caliper holding

[jimschevey]

i have an 83 goldwing gl1100. one of the front calipers was dragging on the rotor and not letting the pressure off once the handlever was released. i have taken the caliper off and replaced the seals and cleaned all the insides. yuck, nothing inside to block air from going thru. once i bleed the front system the caliper starts dragging again. i loosen the bleeder and the caliper stops dragging. i am convinced it is in the line. with the caliper off i can shove the piston in and out with my fingers. thanks for any input

[virgilmobile]

I had the EXACT same problem.
Here's the cure.
Remove the handlebar master cylinder.Gut it out,REMOVE the reservoir.It takes a bunch of wiggling and twisting to get it free.It will be stuck on the "O" ring.
Now to the good part.There are actually 2 holes in the bottom.1 large (1/8") feed hole and one really small bleeder hole.A single strand from a wire brush will be small enough to clear it.It's plugged.
Flush the whole thing clean,coat everything with DOT 4 and re-assemble,bleed and enjoy good brakes.

[jimschevey]

thanks, i will start on this tomorrow. again thanks a lot

[virgilmobile]

By the way.If you already have a problem with one,You might as well expect the same from the rest of the system.

[WingAdmin]

Look at How to rebuild your front master cylinder starting at step 8 for details on this.

The rear is very similar.

[tedmass]

That should do it.. But at times you could have some bad brake hoses, thay mite be getting old and collapsing. check if cracking if so for preventive replace them with OEM or braided lines. chances are its that little hole in the master.but we are here to give ya the most info we can.every bit helps .Good luck

[jimschevey]

it was the little hole plugged up. that fluid bowl was something to get seperated from the body. thanks for the help. i will probably go ahead and clean the rear master cylinder. the front looked terrible. has anyone ever had a problem of the headlight not coming on. turn the bike off and restart and the headlight will come on. i had a problem last month with the turn signals not working, turned out a family of mice had moved into my fairing and used the wire insulation as food or nest. i replaced all the wires that i could find damaged. wish there had been a bigger access panel besides the turn signal holes. thanks

[seabee_]

Sounds like the mice may have feasted on more than the turn signals. You might have to trace the wires for the headlighe to look for damage or a bad connection.

[virgilmobile]

Also....the headlight gets its power through the START button.Mine was contaminated and sometimes wouldn't come on till I wiggled the starter button a few times.
Ultimately I did remove it and fix the switch.

[patbrandon1]

I had the EXACT same problem.
Here's the cure.
Remove the handlebar master cylinder.Gut it out,REMOVE the reservoir.It takes a bunch of wiggling and twisting to get it free.It will be stuck on the "O" ring.
Now to the good part.There are actually 2 holes in the bottom.1 large (1/8") feed hole and one really small bleeder hole.A single strand from a wire brush will be small enough to clear it.It's plugged.
Flush the whole thing clean,coat everything with DOT 4 and re-assemble,bleed and enjoy good brakes.

Virgil, thanks for this information. I have a front brake that is just being stubborn and not totally releasing, and I still have a slight squeal. So I decided to take this step and remove the reservoir. It is very tough to remove. I can turn it, but it will not come off. Is there a trick to get it off? I don't want to break it and am nervous about how much pressure to apply to get it off. Also, what does "gut it out" mean, and what do you use to flush it out with?

[WingAdmin]

You can actually get to the holes without removing the reservoir:



The return port that needs to be cleaned out is indicated by the arrow:



The best thing to use to clean all the gunk out is spray brake cleaner. Use goggles, it will go everywhere and you DO NOT want the stuff in your eyes. Also make sure none of it or the brake fluid runoff gets anywhere near your plastic fairing or bodywork, or paintwork - it will eat it away.

[jimschevey]

turns out the headlight not working sometimes was because of the starter switch. like virgilmobile said, i wiggled the button and the light would come on. thanks. this is a great forum. thanks everyone for the help