Front brakes

[Mykneesbehurtin]

While riding yesterday I started smelling hot brakes and noticed the trike being held back when giving it gas, so i pulled over and noticed the right front rotor was very hot. so after setting for a few minutes took off again and had no more issues. Now this happened before but to the left caliper and it and the rotor was replaced under warranty. So we got home and I pulled the caliper and pads and when pumping the front brake only one piston was pushing out, so I cleaned them with brake clean and a tooth brush and after that i was able to nearly push them in by hand. Tonight I am going to pull the left caliper and clean those pistons, and of course we are leaving for a all weekend ride this Friday so there is no way to get it looked at for probably a month. Now I have done this on my 2002 Road King when the front brakes felt spongy and the handle would come back almost to the grip so I hope this corrects my sticking front calipers. And this bike does not have ABS the brakes are linked, has anyone else had issues with the calipers getting stuck. The bike currently has almost 27,000 miles on it.

[Old Road Dog]

If the brakes got hot enough to do that I would check the runout on the rotor- heat can warp rotors. Also a flush of the brake fluid, as that probably came to a boil. My '76 FXE rear caliper actually caught fire- no not kidding ,I had to urinate on it to put it out- no wheres Nevada. A guy in a pickup came by and we loaded it up and headed to Las Vegas. It was covered under warranty but I had to report to a recruiting station as I was due back at Ft. Bliss that Monday and didnt want to be counted out of ranks. Got to screw with the new recruits- showed them what to do out in the parking lot if caught in a U shaped ambush.Call DivArty down on your own position and Kiss your ass good bye! That model year had big problems with the calipers locking up.

[Jack Klarich]

Cleaning the pistons will not hurt at this time, what about flushing the fluid?

Has this been done recently

You mentioned 1 piston was out and sticking, was it a middle piston?

That is the one that is linked with the rear brakes, are the front pads wearing evenly?

[Mykneesbehurtin]

The fluid was changed last April and i figured out that the two smaller pistons were for the rear link system.

[Mykneesbehurtin]

Cleaning the pistons will not hurt at this time, what about flushing the fluid?

Has this been done recently

You mentioned 1 piston was out and sticking, was it a middle piston?

That is the one that is linked with the rear brakes, are the front pads wearing evenly?

No Jack it was one of the bigger front brake pistons.

[Mykneesbehurtin]

Called the HD shop today to see if I could order a caliper just in case my cleaning doesn't work. As I figured it is on back order until the end of this month and they don't have a rebuild kit for them, plus a new one is $425 ouch. A rebuild kit couldn't be much more than o-rings and maybe new pistons. But if the pistons are not in bad shape a little light emery or scotchbrite could do wonders, its been raining so far this week and haven't had time to test drive it yet.