1990 Harley XL1200

Dot 5, $50 for half a litre, and I shopped around too!

[cough] http://www.amazon.co...t 5 brake fluid [/cough]


Crazy the mark up on stuff there...

Genuine harley fluid.

Yeah you can take the top of the reservoir and cable tie the lever, it just may take a bit of time..     my break lever was OK, but had a little bit of a soft lever pull,  I removed the front wheel to change wheel bearings ...  when I pulled the Calipers off, I pushed the pistons back as far as they would go (to make it easier to fit the wheel back in)  this pushed the little bit of air out that was giving me a soft lever...  now my brakes are awesome, the lever is very firm, and only travels about an 25mm, instead of coming 3/4 of the way to the handle bar..  you could also try this, just BE CAREFUL that the brake fluid does pore out of your reservoir when you do this......   I hope this link works...  BikeBiz  brake fluid prices...   cheers mate       http://motor.bikebiz...t 4 brake fluid

Ok thats great ill give it a go thanks for the advice. Failing that ill give it a bleed i suppose, cheers. 

Whats 12oz, is that 500ml? You know what's funny, when the bloke told me $50 something, i said "oh is that genuine", to which he replied "theres no such thing as genuine brake fluid", i was like oh ok feeling like an idiot.... Obviously not. Ill try make it to a harley dealer and get some. Also found some 5.1 but lucky i researched it as it's glycol based and could have been a bad ending. 

Jeff, yes crazy mark up, but that is also 5.1 which is not the same as synthetic dot 5

Just looked, its only 355ml, but your still getting 710ml for less than old mate wants for 500.

Looks pretty genuine.



Also, one bottle will be heaps, you will totally flush front and rear with half a bottle.

Cheers.

Fair enough....there is always the "genuine" stuff then..

http://www.latus-har...2-oz-Bottle.htm

lol..

You can get 'normal' synthetic 5 here for similar price to the link from Amazon.


I know in some cases it's not worth the wait and hassle of shipping stuff, but still seems amazing the mark up on stuff there...

Yeah no definitely genuine, just another bike shop talking shit.

And Jeff I only know because I was almost sold 5.1 by a salesperson who thought it was the same. Lucky I looked into it could have been a bad ending. And yeah it's called the Australia tax, it was in the news. But then again are our markups relative to our wages? Compared to the US?

I suppose the higher cost you are used to paying (so to speak) let me do what I do in a sense..but the amount of how much some of the things seem to be jacked up just really seems amazing.

I remember ages ago on a visit there, seeing how much like interior house paint there was at Bunnings, but even my buddy just was used to it, as he had never really (and neither of us really brought it up in the past,lol) realized how much cheaper it was here.

When he built his last house, all the paint came from here to say the least.(along with a lot of other building supplies) (That is not the norm of course since it didn't cost him anything to get it back obviously)

But even just run of the mill everything pretty much seems to be 2 and 3 times the cost.

Yeah it has been on the news, called the Australia tax. People actually do some stuffing around to use services that trick American servers into thinking that Australian IP addresses are American. That way these individuals pay the American price, not the aussie price. If that makes sense? Was a while ago...

Yep makes sense...

Had a mate who wanted to order something from here once..was some special airshock setup for softtail HD's..the place here who made it said he had to deal with an Aussie distributor who wanted some insane markup on them..

So I just ordered them for him, he paid me and a little for my trouble, and everone was happy.


I remember reading a story too about some sort of software from here..like some whiz bang photoshop or something? and it was priced so high there, that the story was you could actually buy a plane ticket, fly here, buy the software, and fly home and still save a little!

C heck that you actually need Dot 5. A bike of that age I would have thought uses Dot 4

Oh well Jeff all we can do is pray for the dollar to climb up again, then go on a shopping spree.

It says dot 5, I too was a little surprised. But then again I was reading that HD Is changing to dot 4 in the newer bikes for ABS. What is the best way to fit the brake lever/fluid reservoir? Is it parallel to ground? What's the rule for fitting levers in general as I never took notice of how mine came off. Cheers

Fit them where you find them comfortable. 

 

Cheers. 

Does the reservoir need to be parallel to the ground?

Nope. I'd avoid any extreme angles, but i've never had an issue having it not parrallell. 

 

The reason you got air in the system is you must have put the res upside down. 

 

THeres an air pocket in the top of the res near under the lid, and a feed hole into the master down the bottom...Obviously. If you invert it then put it lower than another part of the braking system then of course your going to get air in the line.

 

But yeah, every bike i've ever had i've spun the grips and the like around to fit me. No real reason it wouldnt work even on like a 45, you would just need to watch your fluid level....

 

Cheers. 

Yeah i suppose as long as the feed has fluid supply shouldn't matter the angle. Yeah res was upside down it will need a bleed cable tie on the handle didnt work. 

Bike brakes are bitches of things. 

 

With the res top off, if you just pull the handle a little bit, say 10mm or so, do you get bubbles come up from the bottom or a squirt of fluid?

 

I've found with my Harley you have to bleed from both top and bottom, just pull the lever a tiny bit untill bubbles stop coming out of the top then start on the bottom, sometimes leving it overnight helps to, you might still be lucky.....

 

Cheers. 

if you are going to bleed it and don't want to loose too much fluid..  push some small hose (fuel line ect.) onto the bleed nipple, and the other end into a bottle....  if the fluid is clean enough, reuse it.. or keep it......  or not  lol  

Dj yeah i did notice tiny bubbles from the bottom of the res where it feeds the fluid. 

 

Probably against my better judgement, but not a bad idea as long as its clean, Ian. 

Keep pulling the lever tiny bits untill the air stops, you never know.

Might take upwards of half an hour so grab a beer and a chair.

And Dot 5 is a bit harder to get all the bubbles out than Dot 3/4 is, so can take a little bit of time sometimes.

What a prick of a thing!

Anyway somehow got some motivation to do a full front end polish. I couldnt bare to look at it next to my shiny new chrome risers and clamp. Also finished lowering it, and wow does it look good. Pitty i cant fit my hand under the guard anymore lol. Only problem is the chain tightened up heaps. Does anyone know the factory specs for play in the chain (deflection)? 

 

 

Tomorrow i will be polishing the alloy on the motor, primary case and any other flat pieces of alloy i can find. Still not sure if these mirrors should go under or above the bars, opinions?

 

Edited by judgelj, 10 February 2014 - 10:05 PM.

Over. 

 

With high mirrors you get to look in them and see your nice big broad shoulders.

 

With low mirrors you get to look in them and see your nice big broad gut....

 

I prefer over

 

Cheers. 

With the angle of those rear shocks, I hope you enjoy a rough ride. Can't see them doing much.

A chain needs around 10-15mm movement I'm pretty sure. Just want to make sure it has no tight spots

Haha over it will have to be, I'll just buy some slimmer mirrors.

And yeah I gave it a bit of a push and they don't move much, feels pretty ridged to be honest. At least I got the lowering blocks to work until I can afford some lower shocks all together. What I'm worried about is the shock sitting all the way to the right of the stud, I don't want it to bend or snap.

Anyway thanks DJ your advice worked a treat. Depressed the lever about 1mm repeatedly until no more air came out and it shot fluid up.

So spent three days and about 36+ hours polishing, wiring, fixing, cleaning and painting. This is the result, makes me a bit less reluctant to sell and buy a bigger one haha. 

 

Edited by judgelj, 11 February 2014 - 09:28 PM.