Had this happening on my 2017 street bob. This fixed it, it's crazy that Harley can't come up with a better system than this . No excuse for this kind of failure on a 4 year old bike.
Happy to read all went well. I agree it's just wrong. I hope they get better. Thank you for watching and your sub Derick.. Ride safe and have a great day.
Thanks for the video. That’s the sign of a good mechanic figuring out the problem and coming up with a solution to repair it so it will never screw up again.
I had the same problem on my '06 Deluxe and a local dealer (before they even looked at my bike) wanted to charge me $300 for the full front brake assembly on the handlebar plus labor. An independent mechanic (former Harley lead service tech) worked his magic for $8, which was the price for a 6 pack! 10 minutes and it was good to go. I told him what the dealer wanted to charge me and what they said I needed to replace and he was so mad he called them and ripped the tech a new one. I like your vids! Thanks...
I had this exact problem and found your video. It definitely worked 100%. I put a bit of jb weld on that notch. Let it dry and sand it smooth. I’m new to riding and finding out my bike already needed work sucked but being able to doing it myself was a great feeling. Thank you.
Happy all worked out well. Welcome to the sport. And yes it is rewarding to fix your machine. Thank you for watching. And all your support Michael. Ride safe and have a great day.
Sweet man, I just replaced my switch covers and someone put liquid gasket on there, but it fell off!this tip saved me from buying a new switch and the pain of soldering it in! You’re the best,thanks a million.
Happy to Help. That is a real pain to solder in . Harley sells that as a whole unit. Not cheap. Let us know how it works out.. Thank you for watching and your Sub Brian O. Ride Safe and have a great day.
I've been fixing this problem with tape for years.... And I just happen to have JB weld sitting right in front of me. THANKS this might last longer than a season!! Subscribed!!
Thank you Mr. Rocco. I lost the white button months ago and couldn't find a fix. Harley tried to sell me a new set and I told them thanks but no thanks. You saved the day!
Happy to read all went well. Never heard of this problem on metric bikes that I have at work and owned. Thank you for watching and your sub Nate.. Ride safe and have a great day.
Happy to help. Thank you for watching and all your support. Ride safe and have a great day. Harley Davidson should've did a better job with those front brakes.
Thanks for the video....Took mine to get inspected and light was stuck on.... Watched your video....Didn't have jb weld but drilled a small pilot hole in the brake lever and put small sheet metal screw in to take up the slack.... Works perfect and it's adjustable plus was ready to ride in a couple minutes, no dry time and didnt cost a dime
Thank you, my brake lever was doing just like this. At first, I thought it was the brake light itself, so I changed it out, but it wasn't. I took the brake lever off. I bought the Marine version of the JB Weld and followed the instructions. It worked perfectly.
thanks for getting back so fast. wish i had found you sooner the maybe i would have nearly ruined my bike. I had a man adjust the valves and he forgot to reconnect the vacuum line to the pitcock. I was not aware that it was vacuum i thought it was like the old bikes and was gavity flow. i even took ti back and he still missed it. i just happened to stumble on to the problem. keep those videos coming
I almost used this advice, which does solve the immediate problem, but doesn't correct the underlying issue. If the brake lever is loose like in this video, and on my bike, the issue is the master cylinder plunger is sticking an not fully expanding to push the lever all the way out which will engage the brake switch. I cleaned, lubed, and worked the plunger until it fully expanded. The put the lever back on and everything works as it should.
A sticky master cylinder plunger is an another issue that could cause the brake light to stay on. But the fix in this video specifically addresses a common problem with the front brake light switch. They’re particularly finicky, and over time they just need to be depressed a bit further to turn off the brake light… even when the lever is released all the way to the stop.
I agree with you with the sticky cylinder in the master. There's a few easy fixes that's ridiculous. I never happened on any of the Japanese bikes are very popular and Harley Davidson front brakes. Thank you for watching and all your support George. Drive safe and have a great day.
Thank you sir. I did the jb weld yesterday, went out early this morning and put it back together and it worked. Planning on new when I do handlebar change.
Happy to Help. Let us know how it works out. Pisses me off this stupid shit. Only on Harleys. They should be ashamed of themselves. All about money to them how to get it out of you Thank you for watching and your sub.PJ, Ride Safe and have a great day.
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Let us know how it works out and Harley Davidson should be ashamed of themselves. Just another method, to get money out of your pocket. Thank you for watching and all your support Barry. Ride safe and have a great day. And I don't mean to get down on Harley Davidson, I love these bikes, but the dealers are following the leads of other big companies. I feel we're getting gouged.. Sorry about the rant.
Watched this again and again, checked my brake lever, it moves around a lot. If the bike is not running and standing still, with no vibration or movement effecting it I can push the lever forward to a position that shuts the rear brake light off. But the lever moves around with just gravity effecting it so the lever isn't engauging that switch and the light stays on. I'm wondering is it better for me to just get a new front brake lever, get a new piston is that called a switch (what is that piece that touches the lever exactly called?). Your fix builds up the lever to enhance the contact point with the switch...now my question is over time will the issue start to happen again until a new piston switch? is put in??? Thanks again for this video because you are the only one who really explained the why and the how of the problem. I'm learning, I hope I'm getting my thinking right.
Happy to help. The reason I did the video is because it's a very expensive fix Harley wants to sell you control and you got to wire it in. So by adding a little material to the handle and fixed. Has nothing to do with it. Let us know how it works out videos quite clear.
@@TwoWheelRocco I ended up replacing the lever, brake switch, rear brake switch, and master cylinder, the problem is fixed. Honestly I think it was a combo of a problem and since I replaced the switch, rebuilt master cylinder and it didn't fix it I just went for it all and eliminated all the potential causes.
Sir, I appreciate you educating on Harley Davidson. Instead of adding material to the brake lever, could you have cleaned and lubricated the pin in the master cylinder so it would pop out as it should? Just another possibility of fixing the issue. Thank you for your videos.
Happy to help. I've tried it all, pin fails the pin is incorporated in your control you cannot buy it separate. Thats one of Harleys beautiful designs to keep your bike in the dealer or trade it in. Try and let us know how that works out. I've done a few, they're notorious to fail when people remove the brake handle wrong. Thank you for watching and your sub Keith.. Ride safe and have a great day.
Most of the time it's not the electrical switch, it's the spring & plunger inside the master cylinder. It gets gunked up and the plunger/spring doesn't push the lever all the way back to its forward position. The brake light switch works fine. It's the lever that's in the wrong position.
My Ironhorse was doing this. Before I took it all apart. I sprayed some WD-40 on the plunger. It was gummed up and the WD loosened it up so now the plunger pushes the lever all the way(no more loose play).
I put a spring in mine. Made sure compressed, it won't interfere with brake action. Stretched it out to push the lever out. Faster, easier, hopefully works as good as yours lol
@Cordak don't suppose you could show me how that looks/works? I've been trying this JB weld trick but it forces the brake on, when filed down the light goes back to staying on.
Thank you so much ! 2nd time this problem has started on my 13 FXDWG. Scary thing on the road and I stick my finger behind the lever to shut the lights off when it happens !! Should be a recall from HD if you ask me. ( or even if you don’t ).
Happy to help. I agree with you. It should be a recall. I'm afraid to say, I think HD designs some of this stuff so you have to trade it in or service in their shop. Thank you for watching and all your support blackfly56. rRde safe and have a great day.
Nice! I have this issue on my 96 Road King, I'm going to give this a try. Less of a headache than replacing the switch. Off to buy some JB weld! Thanks for the video!
@@TwoWheelRocco Hi thanks for the reply! After watching your video and a few others here is the fix that I came up with and it seems to work perfectly! I removed the master cylinder and was looking at the switch. The end had busted off so it was too short but I noticed the shaft for the switch was hollow and appeared to be threaded! So I scrounged around the shop and came up with a #4 x 3/8" Phillips button head sheet metal screw and it screwed into the remaining shaft of the switch perfectly! Not too tight and what surprised me was the switch shaft didn't rotate when I put the screw in! It works perfect I was able to adjust the screw where it makes proper contact with the brake lever and I have a proper working tail light again! This isn't the original switch I replaced it once before about 10 years ago (have owned this bike since new) so I don't know if the replacement switch was built differently from the original one. But this fix seems to be working perfectly for now just have to see how long it holds up. I wouldn't be surprised if it works longer than a new switch would.. : ) Just thought I would share this with you as a possible option in the future. Once again thanks for the video!
@@mojoneko8303 Happy to read all went well. And it probably will last longer than their design. Thank you for your update. Ride Safe and have a Great Day.
Happy to help, you'll have to purchase the whole control. remove your gas tank and hook it up...this is a dealer item. Thank you for your Sub Jim. Ride Safe and Have a Great Day.
@@TwoWheelRocco Hello again sir...well, you did say!! I opened the front brake housing and pushed the button in/out numerous times and brake lights still stuck on!! Any suggestions what to look for next would be greatly appreciated,,,,as you can tell I'm not the most experienced guy out there!! : )
Thank you so much. I just bought a softail and later realized I had no brake light. I now know what the problem is. but still nothing with rear brake pedal.
Happy to help. Rear brake relay notorious for failing.. You could test it by jumping the two wires that will turn your rear brake light on, That would be on the relay. Thank you for watching and all your support Coldbeer321. Let us know how it works out. Ride safe and have a great day.
Happy all went well. Thank you for watching and all your support Justin. Ride safe and have a great day. Harley Davidson should do better. Try to put some penetrating oil on the master cylinder piston on your front brake lever that helps.
Happy to hear it worked out well for you. Thank you for watching and your support Seabass. Ride safe and have a great day. As long as you stay out of the dealers it's a happy day.
Thanks 🙏 I will try. I can see we're the break light comes on to a point then goes off when I apply more pressure I'm sure this will work just ordered jb weld
Happy to help. Sometimes I try to spray a little oil on the master cylinder, piston and work a little bit and that works 30% of the time. Let us know how it works out. It's weird. I never had this problem on Japanese bike. Harley thing.. Thank you for watching and all your support. Matt. let us know how it works out ride safe and have a great day.
Hi Rocco, once it happened to me that the rubber cover of the pin pinch out and spring runs out, have you have this situation and how you fixed without replace the whole part, i did it with a bigger spring and a little bolt and works perfect, but it really was a pain in the a... hope to hear from you, Rod from Mexico
Hi again, sorry for my rudeness I didn’t salute you for the holidays, hope the very best for you and your family, and i really hipe you never get the pin rubber pinch out it is a pain in the a... to fix it, regards merry xmass
Great tip, I’m new at working on anything. Got an oil change, light changes (I know it’s nothing) and had to fix my throttle cable recently as it had popped out of the channel. A little piece of plastic was broke and loose when I opened the throttle housing would it be related to this?
Happy to help. I don't believe that has anything to do with your brake light. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and all your support Cody. Ride safe and have a great day. Let us know how it works out.
Hello, this will work the same on your Honda VTX1300, follow this Road King video. th-cam.com/video/VWREp40ppms/w-d-xo.html let us know how it works out, Any questions just ask. Thank you for your Sub. Ride Safe and have a great day.
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Let us know how it works out. Thank you for watching and all your support. Ride safe and have a great day. Sometimes try to spray a little oil on the front master cylinder piston on handlebars,.and see if you can get a little more out of that switch.
Happy to help. Absolutely PB blaster great stuff, What do you have to lose? Let it sit. Working a little bit. Do that for a few days and see what you got. Thank you for watching and all your support. Hawaii. Ride safe. Have a great day. Let us know how it works out.
I have a Road King 2019 and my situation is... When I touch the front brake or the rear brake... in the Center console on top of gas tank... where you see your speed and the gear shifting. A LIGHT illuminates and stays on! Only! When I touch the front brake or Rear break it will stay lit! Can you guide me where to look? I Checked the Ground infront of Battery. When you pull the Battery out. It's good here. Somewhere on the connection where the Front & Rear break go into a hub-area I think is the issue. What is your take on it? Thanks Wil
Happy to help. The two systems are a different layout. Your front brakes are on the front brakes your rear brakes on the rear brakes all the switches and and the unit for the rear break. See which one gets activated and turns these lights on. Start there, Thank you for watching lawyer support. Ride safe and have a great day.
Thanks very much, I have a 91 Sporty XLH1200 and brake lite stays on. I did notice the tab that presses against switch plunger was set in enough to not hold the plunger in enough to open the circuit. Do you know a better way to attach the tail lite shown in ur video? it is what I have on my 91 Sporty 1200. I think they should have used two bolts and nuts with either a dab of thread lock or nylon nuts. Those studs are ridiculous, probably HD hoping someone would pay to have this lamp installed.
Happy to help. I have to agree about the dealer designing stuff so you can not fix it. You do have an older bike I would just retro fit that handle as shown in the video. You can test it by just removing the handle and see if your finger can operate that little button. Let us know how it works out, you can use gorilla glue and pieces of cardboard to build it up. if you don't want to use JB Weld. gorilla glue and the cardboard from the back of a theme tablet. Works well. No drying time with the gorilla glue. Thank you for watching and your support Ray. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco Thank you so much for agreeing on HD's dumb-ass way of installing a tail light! that is the lousiest way to do it. I got the bike registered about a month ago, not ready for an inspection stkr yet. I found I had no brake light from front brake, but did from rear brakes. With a Clymers manual I had the wiring schematic, so much better than the Harley version. color-coded wires. The red from fr. br. sw was to connect w red from rear brake sw. that was not to be. The whole lighting system worked great a few yrs ago. well anyway, I ran a new wire from fr. br. sw. and ran it along the harness w tie wraps and connected as it was to be. Knowing how to electrically follow a ckt is a great thing to know. So it was all hooked up, rear brake worked its sw. properly but not the front. I tested the sw. by pressing plunger and that worked but not w the lever, the arm was in too much to be able to properly activ8 the brake switch. Again you were a BIG help !
Happy to help. First try to squirt a little penetrating oil in the piston of the brake Master cylinder lever just hit the brake lever a little squirt and see if you can break up any residue. Let us know how that works out. But that's what I always try to do first. Thank you for watching all your support Tommy. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco es I read on a forum about shooting some gt85 in the piston and working it in and out. I discovered the problem when the security system red light came on. Thankfully you can read trouble codes without an external device. Thanks again 😉
Great video Rocco. I’ve got a different issue with my front brake light after opening up the switch housing to change handlebar grips. My front brake light now only lights up when the motor is running. Any ideas on what I may have done or what to look for? All other lights work as expected with the key on.
Happy to help. I will take a bite what you did and take a look at it. I know you probably did already. But that's very odd. When you do figure it out, let us know. I have never seen that before. Thank you for watching all your support all-poppet. Ride safe and have a great day.
Took another look at it the other day, and it’s not actually to do with the motor running at all. Seems to be tied in to the run/off switch, and the light is only running with it switched to run. I’m near 100% certain that it was working with the key on like the rest of the lights previously, so something funny going on. I guess the good news is that the light does work in some conditions
My '08 heritage had a u-shaped bent piece of brass that wrapped around that tongue. One day it turned up missing and my brake light was stuck on. I fixed it with a 1/2" long piece of 1/4" ID tubing with a slit down the middle...better than new. This is a piss-poor design on Harley's part. Unfortunately one of many! Thanks Rocco! 👍
Theres a return pin on a spring in the master cylinder thats probably stuck, THAT is what you need to be lubing up, not "adding material" to the brake handle
Happy to help. It's nice when things work out when y'all gotta take it to the dealer for nonsense. Thank you for watching and all your support. Ride safe and have a great day.
Happy to help. Change the bulb, clean the connections and you should be able to get to the bottom of that. Could be a bad wire connecting to the light socket thank you for watching and all your support Chris. Ride safe and have a great day.
Happy to help. The front brake pin is electrically triggered. The rear is hydraulic through the rear brake solenoid. I hope that helps. Thank you for watching all your support Orlando. Ride safe and have a great day.
Hi,thx for a great video. Had the same problem with my 2014 cvo Breakout,after watching your video i din the same. Worked like a charm,thx bud and ride safe 👌
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and your support for Austin. Let us know how it works out. Ride safe and have a great day.
The lever has pushed the brake switch further into the hole, I wedge the brake switch from behind to push it out the hole farther, if you take that top cover off, and take a screwdriver you'll be able to slide that whole switch towards the hole. I push it back towards the hole and wedge a piece of plastic behind it and then it won't do it again. I'm just saying. I have a 2013 Fatboy I've had to do this too, because my brake light stayed on and my security light would keep coming on.
Happy to help. I know that little brass spring wedge. That's how I started with this. And then it got worse. Good to see people are looking deeper into why. Thank you for watching Jeffrey. Ride safe and have a great day. And your comment they all help.
Hey real good video. This is happening to my 2014 Low Rider I bought in 2014 new. HD service didn't know why the red dot was on my dash at a couple thousand miles LOL..hellooooo. Was a warranty issue and HD never fixed it because wherever I took it nobody knew what it was dumbells. I'm gonna look into doing this, Thanks.
@@TwoWheelRocco Just checked front brake handle and indeed when pushed forward brake light goes off, this is typically what I do once it starts acting up and the red dot tells me so. Handle seems like it has more than average play in it, can I tighten it up (sorry if thats a dumb question but I'm new to the fixing my bike thing, since HD certified mechanics LOL can't do it I guess CC will LOL)! OR amI better off just putting a new handle on? I'm assuming that play in the handle isn't allowing the mechanism to interact with that piston? Advice greatly appreciated, thanks.
@@TwoWheelRocco a very similar way but cheaper lol. He just stick a folded zip tie part to make the gap. Very easy to redo if necessary. He showed me if that ever comes undone. He assured me it probably won't, but if it doea i know how to fix now.
Happy to help. The switch inside the mechanism is broke. Nothing wrong with the lever. The switch wore down and it doesn't make a full contact as in the video. Thank you for watching and your sub Russ. Ride safe and have a great day. Hope this helps.
Great video TWR! I have a 2008 Road King Classic Anniversary and just about every major repair I had to do, your videos helped me. Thanks for sharing. Bjamin5😊
@@TwoWheelRocco Afternoon TWR, Just wanted to let you know I repaired my brake light like you showed on the video and it works perfectly. Thanks again! BJamin5 👍🏾😁
Happy to help. That would be your rear brake solenoid. It's a brake switch not hard to fix. follow your rear brake line and that's what it plugs into. screws into and they'll be two wires connections. I hope this helps. Thank you for watching and your support tino. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco after further troubleshooting, I figured out that it was indeed my front brake lever and I followed your instructions, and it seem to fix the problem and I just wanted to thank you. It save me money . eventually down the road I’m gonna replace my brake lines, so maybe then I’ll buy a new housings
@@tino1766 Happy everything worked out. It is your housing. Not a cheap fix. That's Harleys specialty. Get money out of your wallet. Ride safe and have a great day. That repair will last forever.
Just subscribed. Enjoy all of your videos. Have you done a video on brake light not coming on at all? I have an ‘07 FXDWG and suddenly the brake light does not work using the hand brake or foot brake. Anyway…keep up the videos. Learning tons. Thx
Happy to help. You know your problem has to be in the back light or wires under the fender leading to the back light. Get a flashlight and inspect and see where the power stops. Because it was interrupted and that's why you're not getting a brake light. That's where I would start I'm sorry I don't have a video on that. First check the lightbulb it's a two element bulb. Hopefully it's that simple. Test for power in the rear after that and backtrack. You'll find it. Thank you for watching and your sub Ed. Ride safe and have a great day. Let us know how it works out.
@@TwoWheelRocco follow up on my rear brake issue. I followed your advise and started my investigation from the rear. EVERY video I watched suggested the issues were at the front. By focusing on the rear light itself I was able to diagnose and fix the problem. Clearly I am not a mechanic but your support helped me fix the problem. Cannot thank you enough! Much appreciated!
@@edbaisley5805 I'm happy to read all is well. I love when people figure out their problems with these bikes. Thank you for watching and all your kind words Ed. Ride safe and have a great day.
Happy to help. Dealer will replace the handle bar control. I'm showing you that you can fix the brake light. by fixing handle. and save a little money I hope that helped Thank you for watching and your sub Carl. Any questions just ask. Ride safe and have a great day.
Hey i have an 89 sportster and the lever doesn’t have the notch that hits the button for the brake light. The push rod and brake switch move around when hitting the button so if i keep squeezing the lever it’ll just move up and stop hitting the button. Any idea how to fix this?
Happy to help. If you could take some pictures and send it to my email address ERocco 3964@gmail.com. Thank you for watching and your sub Manny. Ride safe and have a great day.
Happy to help. The problem lies in the switch that the handle activates. So when you build up the lever you take up the space that the switch is failing. Not that hard to do. Let us know how it works out. If you watch the video you'll see that little switch inside the brake handle. Thank you for watching and your support Unknown PrO. Ride safe and have a great day.
Hey ROCCO!!! Dennis here, new rider, new Harley owner. I just bought a 2015 Dyna FXDL Lowrider and the brake light was on for a few days and now works intermittingly. By on I mean just like the running light, illuminated non stop. Now it just doesn't illuminate. If I remove the tail light socket and reposition it the brake light works for a few minutes and then goes back to not working. The running lights are fine but now no brake light and at first it wouldn't go out. No wires are loose that I can see, does this sound like the brake light switch? Thank you for your great channel and apologies if my question is not clear. The code displayed reads b2161...
Happy to help I would try a new bulb first, see what that does. Let us know how that works out. That's where I would start. Good luck with the new bike and welcome to the sport. Any questions just ask. Trying to figure out if it's from your foot break or your front hand brake.. Thank you for watching and all your support Denis. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco I changed bulbs first and neither hand nor foot work but I just checked it just now and they are back working but as soon as I ride it will die most likely. The running lights are good, just the brake lights. For 3 days they stayed on and would not go off. Thank you for your help and your videos for sure. I'm watching em all. When your brake light switch goes out I wonder does it sometime work erratically and then die, like my bike's symptoms?
@@dennisbartenbach yes, it is erotic. When this light stays on, go to your front hand break and move it all the way out and see if the light turns off. There's a small switch in the handle that controls the brake light and when they go bad the brake light stays on, so if you take the handle and push it out, see if the light goes off. That would be a good test indicate it's in the switch in the handle.
Happy to help, look at your rear brake pedal, follow the line and there will be brake solenoid and you'll see two wires connected to it. That's what triggers your rear brake light. Take a close look for your metal brake line. That is your brake light solenoid with two wires on it. This is what controls that, solenoids bad. Thank you for watching and all your support George. Ride safe and have a great day. Let us know how it works out. it's not that difficult fix. www.google.com/search?q=hd+sportster+rear+brake+solenoid&client=safari&sca_esv=55574f6ac650f86f&rls=en&sxsrf=ADLYWIJ8LTvO7GBoD3n8jdwIYQqw6bPS4g%3A1717369154484&ei=QvlcZoSMHfHKp84PkreG6AQ&oq=HD+Sportster+rear+brake&gs_lp=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_IB&sclient=gws-wiz-serp. Google search. Try eBay and you'll find your part.
Hi Rocco ! I want to share this for you and your viewers. My back light would only work one time (09 sporty) and then I would have to let it sit overnight and then the same thing. I thought maybe air in the lines might cause this but as I was replacing the back brake light switch I pumped it with a lot of air still in the line and the light worked even before I had finished bleeding the lines. So my situation was the exact opposite of the light not going on or the light staying on. I hope this helps somebody. Take care !
Happy to help. Did you try what I talked about to manipulate the switch or spray a little oil on the master cylinder piston and see if you could free that up a little bit let us know how it works out.
Thank You For Your Videos... I Got My First Sportster This Summer & Your Videos Have So Far Helped Me Do An Oil Change, Clean My Carburetor, & Change Out My Brake Pads... I Was Wondering Whether You Could Help Me Out... Recently Whenever I’m Riding It & I Downshift... The Shift Lever Gets Stuck... Do You Know What It Might Be? & Do You Have A Video That You Recommended For Me To Watch
Happy to Help. What year and model forward controls or not? Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and your Sub Rich. Ride Safe and have a great day.
Make sure everything is moving freely and that is it adjusted properly if it's only a downshift issue there's a good chance somethings hanging up in the linkage of your shifter. everything has to move freely throughout the shift. th-cam.com/video/Fs-rUg2WDIQ/w-d-xo.html. Let us know how this works out.
I had the same issue, but on the foot brake (same principle) where the brake arm (shifter arm) rotates on the "arm" that comes from the frame, had grit, and grim, hanging the brake arm when I pressed it, it would not come back up, only when I pulled it up with my toe. Pulled it off, used still wool and paper towels to clean it, used a small amount of grease on the rotating area, it is like new. Hope this helps Edit: steel wool, not still, lol
Happy to hear all went well. I'm so surprised that Harley does not fix that shortcoming. Thank you for watching and all your support Dan. Ride safe and have a great day.
Happy to help. It will last forever. Follow the video and you should be all right. Thank you for watching and your son. Let us know how it works out. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco so I just put everything back together and gave it a test. It Almost has it, but the light keeps staying on every other squeeze of the brake. Do you think it needs a little more JB weld?
@@youtubeaccount458 yes it does my friend, little more. let it sit overnight. Sand and put it together and you should have it. Let us know how it works out. Thank you for watching and your support
@@TwoWheelRocco so I put some more on, tried it out and it was a little too much. Filed it down a bit and then it was perfect. Went out today for a ride but as soon as the brakes got hot the front brake started to lock up, was lucky I wasn't too far from home. Took it home and filed a tiny bit more off but then I was back to square one with the light staying on 😫. Looks like I'm gonna have to just get it sorted and pay the price ☹
Rocco, my front brakes on my 07 ultra classic keep lock up?? I rebuilt the master cylinder and both calipers!! It still locks up!!! What do you think is wrong? florida bike
Happy to help, Front master is building up pressure because it's not returning the fluid properly. tried to re-clean and reinstall. let us know how it works out, that's what happened to me.. Thank you for all your Sub Tom. Ride Safe And have a great day.
Happy to help. I agree, it's just another reason for you to bring your bike into the Dealer. They really looking for you to trade it in. But that fix is pretty relatively easy. Let us know how it works out. Thank you for watching all your support Roy. ride safe and have a great day.
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and all your support unorthodoxrider. Ride safe and have a great day. Let us know how it works out.
That sounds great. Makes it easy. Never seen that before. What bike?. Thank you for watching and all your support Gary,. Ride safe and have a great day.
Had this happening on my 2017 street bob. This fixed it, it's crazy that Harley can't come up with a better system than this . No excuse for this kind of failure on a 4 year old bike.
Happy to read all went well. I agree it's just wrong. I hope they get better. Thank you for watching and your sub Derick.. Ride safe and have a great day.
Thanks for the video. That’s the sign of a good mechanic figuring out the problem and coming up with a solution to repair it so it will never screw up again.
Happy to Help, Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and your sub White Knight . Ride safe and have a great day.
Rocco you have no idea how much money I have saved thanks to your videos. You are a big support for all of us. Keep doing videos please Sr. Thank you.
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and your sub AC. Ride safe and have a great day.
HE KNOWS WHAT HE'S SAVING YOU!!!!!
I had the same problem on my '06 Deluxe and a local dealer (before they even looked at my bike) wanted to charge me $300 for the full front brake assembly on the handlebar plus labor. An independent mechanic (former Harley lead service tech) worked his magic for $8, which was the price for a 6 pack! 10 minutes and it was good to go. I told him what the dealer wanted to charge me and what they said I needed to replace and he was so mad he called them and ripped the tech a new one. I like your vids! Thanks...
Happy to help. That is what the HD dealers look to do. Thank you for watching and your sub Paul. Ride safe and have a great day.
I had this exact problem and found your video. It definitely worked 100%. I put a bit of jb weld on that notch. Let it dry and sand it smooth. I’m new to riding and finding out my bike already needed work sucked but being able to doing it myself was a great feeling. Thank you.
Happy all worked out well. Welcome to the sport. And yes it is rewarding to fix your machine. Thank you for watching. And all your support Michael. Ride safe and have a great day.
Sweet man, I just replaced my switch covers and someone put liquid gasket on there, but it fell off!this tip saved me from buying a new switch and the pain of soldering it in! You’re the best,thanks a million.
Happy to Help. That is a real pain to solder in . Harley sells that as a whole unit. Not cheap. Let us know how it works out.. Thank you for watching and your Sub Brian O. Ride Safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco did the jb to the handle trick, just like you showed.
Worked like a charm! I’m back in the wind, thanks a million!
@@briano3128 Happy to read all went well. Ride safe and have a great day Brian. Thank you for watching.
My man! I tried all the other YB BS...Searched deeper and came across your channel and bam! Fixed.
Happy to read all went well. Thank you for watching and your sub Don. Ride safe and have a great day.
I've been fixing this problem with tape for years....
And I just happen to have JB weld sitting right in front of me.
THANKS this might last longer than a season!!
Subscribed!!
Happy to help. Thank you for watching all your support banzairyan.. Ride safe and have a great day.
Thank you Mr. Rocco. I lost the white button months ago and couldn't find a fix. Harley tried to sell me a new set and I told them thanks but no thanks. You saved the day!
Happy to read all went well. Never heard of this problem on metric bikes that I have at work and owned. Thank you for watching and your sub Nate.. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco metric bikes are better designed than Harley for sure. 😉 but nothing beats that Harley sound.
@@nate1920And the lack of speeding tickets, I love my GSXR 1000.. Harleys keep me safer. And I do love the sounds of them..
Geat video, I just fixed my 2006 Texas Chopper with a spot of JB weld. Just like you ordered, thanks for the help. I was told I needed it rewired...
Happy to help. Thank you for watching and all your support. Ride safe and have a great day. Harley Davidson should've did a better job with those front brakes.
Thanks for the video....Took mine to get inspected and light was stuck on.... Watched your video....Didn't have jb weld but drilled a small pilot hole in the brake lever and put small sheet metal screw in to take up the slack.... Works perfect and it's adjustable plus was ready to ride in a couple minutes, no dry time and didnt cost a dime
Happy to help. That's a great idea with the drill in the screw. Thank you for watching it all your support Rob ride safe and have a great day.
Thank you, my brake lever was doing just like this. At first, I thought it was the brake light itself, so I changed it out, but it wasn't. I took the brake lever off. I bought the Marine version of the JB Weld and followed the instructions. It worked perfectly.
Happy to help. I love to hear when riders get to fix there bikes.. Thank you for watching and your sub Mr.Ess. Ride safe and have a great day.
You saved us a lot of money. Thank you for every single video. Keep recording and posting.
Like I said. My pleasure. What goes around comes around. Ride safe have a great day any questions just ask.
thanks for getting back so fast. wish i had found you sooner the maybe i would have nearly ruined my bike. I had a man adjust the valves and he forgot to reconnect the vacuum line to the pitcock. I was not aware that it was vacuum i thought it was like the old bikes and was gavity flow. i even took ti back and he still missed it. i just happened to stumble on to the problem. keep those videos coming
Happy to Help, Any questions just ask. Thank you for all your Support. Ride Safe and have a great day.
The legend, that is Two Wheels Rocco !! Thanks yet again for some great help 👍
.Happy to Help, Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and your sub. Chris. Ride safe and have a great day.
Great Video. You're the only video that talks about what the alternative is. I'm gonna mix up some JB right now.
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Let us know how it works out Thank you for watching and your sub wayne. Ride safe and have a great day.
Thanks again for strait forward instructions and solutions. I have this same issue on my 06 King and now I know the fix.
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and all your support jim. Drive safe and have a great day. And it is an easy fix.
I almost used this advice, which does solve the immediate problem, but doesn't correct the underlying issue. If the brake lever is loose like in this video, and on my bike, the issue is the master cylinder plunger is sticking an not fully expanding to push the lever all the way out which will engage the brake switch. I cleaned, lubed, and worked the plunger until it fully expanded. The put the lever back on and everything works as it should.
Yes, that is the underlining problem is the master cylinder. Thank you for that input. Ride safe and have a great day.
A sticky master cylinder plunger is an another issue that could cause the brake light to stay on. But the fix in this video specifically addresses a common problem with the front brake light switch. They’re particularly finicky, and over time they just need to be depressed a bit further to turn off the brake light… even when the lever is released all the way to the stop.
I agree with you with the sticky cylinder in the master. There's a few easy fixes that's ridiculous. I never happened on any of the Japanese bikes are very popular and Harley Davidson front brakes. Thank you for watching and all your support George. Drive safe and have a great day.
Thank you sir. I did the jb weld yesterday, went out early this morning and put it back together and it worked. Planning on new when I do handlebar change.
My '93 Sporty was a little different but exactly the same principle. I had some JB Weld so the cost was ZERO ! Thanks.
Happy to hear all went well. Thank you for watching and your support DesertGeezer. Ride safe and have a great day.
Going through the same problem with my Sportster, Thanks Rocco I'll try this method. I agree this setup is pretty cheap.
Happy to Help. Let us know how it works out. Pisses me off this stupid shit. Only on Harleys. They should be ashamed of themselves. All about money to them how to get it out of you Thank you for watching and your sub.PJ, Ride Safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco Thanks you too Rocco.
My 2006 alter classic has the same problem I'm really glad I got to look at your video today thanks bro
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Let us know how it works out and Harley Davidson should be ashamed of themselves. Just another method, to get money out of your pocket. Thank you for watching and all your support Barry. Ride safe and have a great day. And I don't mean to get down on Harley Davidson, I love these bikes, but the dealers are following the leads of other big companies. I feel we're getting gouged.. Sorry about the rant.
Watched this again and again, checked my brake lever, it moves around a lot. If the bike is not running and standing still, with no vibration or movement effecting it I can push the lever forward to a position that shuts the rear brake light off. But the lever moves around with just gravity effecting it so the lever isn't engauging that switch and the light stays on. I'm wondering is it better for me to just get a new front brake lever, get a new piston is that called a switch (what is that piece that touches the lever exactly called?). Your fix builds up the lever to enhance the contact point with the switch...now my question is over time will the issue start to happen again until a new piston switch? is put in??? Thanks again for this video because you are the only one who really explained the why and the how of the problem. I'm learning, I hope I'm getting my thinking right.
Happy to help. The reason I did the video is because it's a very expensive fix Harley wants to sell you control and you got to wire it in. So by adding a little material to the handle and fixed. Has nothing to do with it. Let us know how it works out videos quite clear.
@@TwoWheelRocco I ended up replacing the lever, brake switch, rear brake switch, and master cylinder, the problem is fixed. Honestly I think it was a combo of a problem and since I replaced the switch, rebuilt master cylinder and it didn't fix it I just went for it all and eliminated all the potential causes.
@@CC-ys8qq Thank you for watching and your support. Job well done. Ride safe and have a great day. keep smiling.
Sir, I appreciate you educating on Harley Davidson. Instead of adding material to the brake lever, could you have cleaned and lubricated the pin in the master cylinder so it would pop out as it should? Just another possibility of fixing the issue. Thank you for your videos.
Happy to help. I've tried it all, pin fails the pin is incorporated in your control you cannot buy it separate. Thats one of Harleys beautiful designs to keep your bike in the dealer or trade it in. Try and let us know how that works out. I've done a few, they're notorious to fail when people remove the brake handle wrong. Thank you for watching and your sub Keith.. Ride safe and have a great day.
Thank you Sir for the education lesson regarding how the front brake switch operates. I am going to try your procedure as well. Great video!
No I took mine apart and used wd40 hopeing the switch was just stuck in but that didn't work
Most of the time it's not the electrical switch, it's the spring & plunger inside the master cylinder. It gets gunked up and the plunger/spring doesn't push the lever all the way back to its forward position.
The brake light switch works fine. It's the lever that's in the wrong position.
My Ironhorse was doing this. Before I took it all apart. I sprayed some WD-40 on the plunger. It was gummed up and the WD loosened it up so now the plunger pushes the lever all the way(no more loose play).
Thank you for your tip and your sub Jeff. Ride Safe and have a great day.
I put a spring in mine. Made sure compressed, it won't interfere with brake action. Stretched it out to push the lever out. Faster, easier, hopefully works as good as yours lol
Let us know how it works out. Sounds like a good idea. Ride safe and have a great day and thank you for your comment.
Did it work?
@@youtubeaccount458 yes
@@TwoWheelRocco works great
@Cordak don't suppose you could show me how that looks/works?
I've been trying this JB weld trick but it forces the brake on, when filed down the light goes back to staying on.
Great video, as always! Love the way you highlight even the smallest details of the process. Ride safe!
Thank you for watching. Ride Safe and have a great day.
Thank you so much ! 2nd time this problem has started on my 13 FXDWG. Scary thing on the road and I stick my finger behind the lever to shut the lights off when it happens !!
Should be a recall from HD if you ask me. ( or even if you don’t ).
Happy to help. I agree with you. It should be a recall. I'm afraid to say, I think HD designs some of this stuff so you have to trade it in or service in their shop. Thank you for watching and all your support blackfly56. rRde safe and have a great day.
Nice! I have this issue on my 96 Road King, I'm going to give this a try. Less of a headache than replacing the switch. Off to buy some JB weld! Thanks for the video!
Happy to help. Let us know how it works out. Thank you for watching and your sub Mojo Neko. Ride Safe and have a Great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco Hi thanks for the reply! After watching your video and a few others here is the fix that I came up with and it seems to work perfectly! I removed the master cylinder and was looking at the switch. The end had busted off so it was too short but I noticed the shaft for the switch was hollow and appeared to be threaded! So I scrounged around the shop and came up with a #4 x 3/8" Phillips button head sheet metal screw and it screwed into the remaining shaft of the switch perfectly! Not too tight and what surprised me was the switch shaft didn't rotate when I put the screw in! It works perfect I was able to adjust the screw where it makes proper contact with the brake lever and I have a proper working tail light again! This isn't the original switch I replaced it once before about 10 years ago (have owned this bike since new) so I don't know if the replacement switch was built differently from the original one. But this fix seems to be working perfectly for now just have to see how long it holds up. I wouldn't be surprised if it works longer than a new switch would.. : ) Just thought I would share this with you as a possible option in the future. Once again thanks for the video!
@@mojoneko8303 Happy to read all went well. And it probably will last longer than their design. Thank you for your update. Ride Safe and have a Great Day.
I have to do this tonight... mine finally gave way this morning on the way to work.
Happy to help, Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and your sub Marvel. Let us know how this works out. . Ride safe and have a great day.
Thanks !
Worked perfectly !
Great videos Rocco !
Happy to hear all went well. Thank you for watching all your support. Ride safe and have a great day.
How do you replace the switch?I have gone through all normal procedures, the light still stays on. Thank you
Happy to help, you'll have to purchase the whole control. remove your gas tank and hook it up...this is a dealer item. Thank you for your Sub Jim. Ride Safe and Have a Great Day.
This man's a legend, full stop.
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for your kind words and your sub Mark . Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco Hello again sir...well, you did say!! I opened the front brake housing and pushed the button in/out numerous times and brake lights still stuck on!! Any suggestions what to look for next would be greatly appreciated,,,,as you can tell I'm not the most experienced guy out there!! : )
@@markrothery8719 Take a look. th-cam.com/video/2Nr8KEgoDfM/w-d-xo.html. He explains it well I hope this helps.
Thank you so much. I just bought a softail and later realized I had no brake light. I now know what the problem is. but still nothing with rear brake pedal.
Happy to help. Rear brake relay notorious for failing.. You could test it by jumping the two wires that will turn your rear brake light on, That would be on the relay. Thank you for watching and all your support Coldbeer321. Let us know how it works out. Ride safe and have a great day.
Thank you, fixed mine saved time and money
Happy all went well. Thank you for watching and all your support Justin. Ride safe and have a great day. Harley Davidson should do better. Try to put some penetrating oil on the master cylinder piston on your front brake lever that helps.
i also had this issue and wrapped electrical tape around that metal on the brake lever, only been a week so far but working well
Happy to hear it worked out well for you. Thank you for watching and your support Seabass. Ride safe and have a great day. As long as you stay out of the dealers it's a happy day.
I'm looking into purchasing my first Harley, what model is yours, the one your working on? Thank You in advance!!
Happy to Help. That would be an 2006 Super Glide. Thank you for your Sub Lance. Any questions just ask, Ride Safe and Have a Great Holiday.
Thanks 🙏 I will try. I can see we're the break light comes on to a point then goes off when I apply more pressure I'm sure this will work just ordered jb weld
Happy to help. Sometimes I try to spray a little oil on the master cylinder, piston and work a little bit and that works 30% of the time. Let us know how it works out. It's weird. I never had this problem on Japanese bike. Harley thing.. Thank you for watching and all your support. Matt. let us know how it works out ride safe and have a great day.
Hi Rocco, once it happened to me that the rubber cover of the pin pinch out and spring runs out, have you have this situation and how you fixed without replace the whole part, i did it with a bigger spring and a little bolt and works perfect, but it really was a pain in the a... hope to hear from you, Rod from Mexico
I've never ran into a problem. Thank you for watching. Sorry I couldn't help. Ride safe and have a great holiday. And thank you for the sub Rod.
Hi again, sorry for my rudeness I didn’t salute you for the holidays, hope the very best for you and your family, and i really hipe you never get the pin rubber pinch out it is a pain in the a... to fix it, regards merry xmass
@@roguerrero8173 Thank You, Ride Safe and have a great day.
Great idea rocco a true mechanic thanks
Happy to help, Let us know how this works out. Thank you for watching and your Sub Hans. Ride Safe and have a great day.
Stinking Genius - Beautiful piece of knowing the bikes and figuring out a repair ......
Happy to help. Thank you for watching and all your kind words Don. Ride safe and have a great day.
Great tip, I’m new at working on anything. Got an oil change, light changes (I know it’s nothing) and had to fix my throttle cable recently as it had popped out of the channel. A little piece of plastic was broke and loose when I opened the throttle housing would it be related to this?
Happy to help. I don't believe that has anything to do with your brake light. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and all your support Cody. Ride safe and have a great day. Let us know how it works out.
could you do a video on changing the break fluid on a1300 vtx. my front brake handle seems sticky
Hello, this will work the same on your Honda VTX1300, follow this Road King video. th-cam.com/video/VWREp40ppms/w-d-xo.html let us know how it works out, Any questions just ask. Thank you for your Sub. Ride Safe and have a great day.
Very resourceful...I like it..
Ride Safe...Steve from Illinois 🇺🇸
Thank you for all your support Steve.. Have a great day. Ride safe.
you're a GD genius! thanks Rocco!
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and your kind words Paul. Ride safe and have a great day. Let us know how it works out.
Have a 2011 Lux having the same issue thanks for the video sir
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Let us know how it works out. Thank you for watching and your sub.Pablo. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco gotta say thanks alot sir worked on my deluxe God bless you and ur fam
@@pablosolis6174 Happy to read all went well. Thank you for watching and all your support Pablo. Ride safe and have a great day.
I’m having this problem with mine. I’m going to do this for sure 👌 thanks very much for this.
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and your sub Ryan. Let us know how it works out. Ride safe and have a great day.
I have this same problem! Gonna do this trick:) Ty so much
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Let us know how it works out. Thank you for watching and all your support. Ride safe and have a great day. Sometimes try to spray a little oil on the front master cylinder piston on handlebars,.and see if you can get a little more out of that switch.
Would using some PB Blaster help loosen the switch since my cables were frozen? The bike sat for three years with the previous owner.
Happy to help. Absolutely PB blaster great stuff, What do you have to lose? Let it sit. Working a little bit. Do that for a few days and see what you got. Thank you for watching and all your support. Hawaii. Ride safe. Have a great day. Let us know how it works out.
I have a Road King 2019 and my situation is...
When I touch the front brake or the rear brake... in the Center console on top of gas tank... where you see your speed and the gear shifting. A LIGHT illuminates and stays on!
Only! When I touch the front brake or Rear break it will stay lit!
Can you guide me where to look? I Checked the Ground infront of Battery. When you pull the Battery out. It's good here.
Somewhere on the connection where the Front & Rear break go into a hub-area I think is the issue.
What is your take on it?
Thanks Wil
Happy to help. The two systems are a different layout. Your front brakes are on the front brakes your rear brakes on the rear brakes all the switches and and the unit for the rear break. See which one gets activated and turns these lights on. Start there, Thank you for watching lawyer support. Ride safe and have a great day.
Thanks very much, I have a 91 Sporty XLH1200 and brake lite stays on. I did notice the tab
that presses against switch plunger was set in enough to not hold the plunger in enough to
open the circuit. Do you know a better way to attach the tail lite shown in ur video? it is what I
have on my 91 Sporty 1200. I think they should have used two bolts and nuts with either a dab
of thread lock or nylon nuts. Those studs are ridiculous, probably HD hoping someone would
pay to have this lamp installed.
Happy to help. I have to agree about the dealer designing stuff so you can not fix it. You do have an older bike I would just retro fit that handle as shown in the video. You can test it by just removing the handle and see if your finger can operate that little button. Let us know how it works out, you can use gorilla glue and pieces of cardboard to build it up. if you don't want to use JB Weld. gorilla glue and the cardboard from the back of a theme tablet. Works well. No drying time with the gorilla glue. Thank you for watching and your support Ray. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco Thank you so much for agreeing on HD's dumb-ass
way of installing a tail light! that is the lousiest way to do it. I got the bike
registered about a month ago, not ready for an inspection stkr yet. I found I
had no brake light from front brake, but did from rear brakes. With a Clymers
manual I had the wiring schematic, so much better than the Harley version.
color-coded wires. The red from fr. br. sw was to connect w red from rear
brake sw. that was not to be. The whole lighting system worked great a few yrs
ago. well anyway, I ran a new wire from fr. br. sw. and ran it along the harness w
tie wraps and connected as it was to be. Knowing how to electrically follow a ckt
is a great thing to know. So it was all hooked up, rear brake worked its sw.
properly but not the front. I tested the sw. by pressing plunger and that worked
but not w the lever, the arm was in too much to be able to properly activ8 the
brake switch. Again you were a BIG help !
Thank you so much!! It worked perfectly and can’t help but wonder how much would have Harley charged me?
Happy to help. Thank you for the update. You can take it for granted a lot. And for watching in your sub Jay. Ride safe and have a great day.
Yes Sir.
Brilliant! Thanks for this great tip!
Happy to help. First try to squirt a little penetrating oil in the piston of the brake Master cylinder lever just hit the brake lever a little squirt and see if you can break up any residue. Let us know how that works out. But that's what I always try to do first. Thank you for watching all your support Tommy. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco es I read on a forum about shooting some gt85 in the piston and working it in and out. I discovered the problem when the security system red light came on. Thankfully you can read trouble codes without an external device. Thanks again 😉
Happy all went well. It's nice to figure out your problems. Very rewarding ride safe and have a great day.
Great video Rocco. I’ve got a different issue with my front brake light after opening up the switch housing to change handlebar grips. My front brake light now only lights up when the motor is running. Any ideas on what I may have done or what to look for? All other lights work as expected with the key on.
Happy to help. I will take a bite what you did and take a look at it. I know you probably did already. But that's very odd. When you do figure it out, let us know. I have never seen that before. Thank you for watching all your support all-poppet. Ride safe and have a great day.
Took another look at it the other day, and it’s not actually to do with the motor running at all. Seems to be tied in to the run/off switch, and the light is only running with it switched to run. I’m near 100% certain that it was working with the key on like the rest of the lights previously, so something funny going on. I guess the good news is that the light does work in some conditions
Insightful and so wallet friendly . Thanks for more helpful info Rocco !
Love That, Ty Dan...Have a Great Day.
I have this issue with my 2008 FXDB I’m going to try this ! Thanks so much for sharing. 🤟🏽
Happy to Help. Thank you for watching and your Support John. Let us know how this works out. Ride Safe and have a great day.
If it don't work using the JB wels I would have to replace the front brake switch right
I would test it see if that switch goes on and off when you're taking it apart. And then make your call from there on. Let us know how it works out.
My '08 heritage had a u-shaped bent piece of brass that wrapped around that tongue. One day it turned up missing and my brake light was stuck on. I fixed it with a 1/2" long piece of 1/4" ID tubing with a slit down the middle...better than new. This is a piss-poor design on Harley's part. Unfortunately one of many!
Thanks Rocco! 👍
I Agree, At least you figured it out, Most don't.. Trip to the Dealer, Thats piss poor. Thank you for watching Harold. Ride safe and have a great day.
Amen to that Harold! They’ve got some really bad design flaws!
Theres a return pin on a spring in the master cylinder thats probably stuck, THAT is what you need to be lubing up, not "adding material" to the brake handle
Thank you for your comment and all your support. Phil. Ride safe and have a great day.
Your fix worked great. Thanks.
Happy to help. Thank you for watching and your sub.George, Ride safe and have a great day.
Excellent bike!
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for your Sub. Ride Safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco Ok!👍
Thanks for the fix helped along on my 2011 fxs
Happy to read all went well. Thank you for watching and your sub Mark. Ride safe and have a great day.
Worked perfect, thank you
Happy to help. It's nice when things work out when y'all gotta take it to the dealer for nonsense. Thank you for watching and all your support. Ride safe and have a great day.
My 2014 FLHX, right rear light only comes on if I press the bulb what would have caused this? recommended fix? Thanks
Happy to help. Change the bulb, clean the connections and you should be able to get to the bottom of that. Could be a bad wire connecting to the light socket thank you for watching and all your support Chris. Ride safe and have a great day.
Another great vidieo Rocco thank you!!
Happy to help. Thank you for watching Eric and all your support. Any questions just ask. Ride safe and have a great day.
Excellent cheap fix thanx!
Happy to Help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching. Ride Safe and have a great day.
Thanks is the pin controlled electric or work from the brake fluid actuator switch? PS worked like a charm🙂
Happy to help. The front brake pin is electrically triggered. The rear is hydraulic through the rear brake solenoid. I hope that helps. Thank you for watching all your support Orlando. Ride safe and have a great day.
Hi,thx for a great video. Had the same problem with my 2014 cvo Breakout,after watching your video i din the same. Worked like a charm,thx bud and ride safe 👌
Happy to read all went well.. Thank you for watching and your sub Tor Egil. Ride Safe and have a great day.
Outstanding sir this really helped
Happy to help.Any questions just ask Thank you for watching and all your support mats . Ride safe and have a great day.
Thanks man you saved this broke ass biker some hard earned money 🇺🇸😎
Happy to help. Thank you for watching and your support Bob. Write safe and have a great day.
Great video! Thank you
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and your support for Austin. Let us know how it works out. Ride safe and have a great day.
The lever has pushed the brake switch further into the hole, I wedge the brake switch from behind to push it out the hole farther, if you take that top cover off, and take a screwdriver you'll be able to slide that whole switch towards the hole. I push it back towards the hole and wedge a piece of plastic behind it and then it won't do it again. I'm just saying. I have a 2013 Fatboy I've had to do this too, because my brake light stayed on and my security light would keep coming on.
Happy to help. I know that little brass spring wedge. That's how I started with this. And then it got worse. Good to see people are looking deeper into why. Thank you for watching Jeffrey. Ride safe and have a great day. And your comment they all help.
this is exactly my issue....thank you!!!
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and all your support Aldonlee. Ride safe and have a great day.
Hey real good video. This is happening to my 2014 Low Rider I bought in 2014 new. HD service didn't know why the red dot was on my dash at a couple thousand miles LOL..hellooooo. Was a warranty issue and HD never fixed it because wherever I took it nobody knew what it was dumbells. I'm gonna look into doing this, Thanks.
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Let us know how it works out. Thank you for watching and your sub C C. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco Just checked front brake handle and indeed when pushed forward brake light goes off, this is typically what I do once it starts acting up and the red dot tells me so. Handle seems like it has more than average play in it, can I tighten it up (sorry if thats a dumb question but I'm new to the fixing my bike thing, since HD certified mechanics LOL can't do it I guess CC will LOL)! OR amI better off just putting a new handle on? I'm assuming that play in the handle isn't allowing the mechanism to interact with that piston? Advice greatly appreciated, thanks.
@@CC-ys8qq No the switch is bad you need a whole new control. That's why I did the video, Easy $5 fix.
I just had that issue a few months ago. Paid $60 to a local rider from the Facebook groups to come fix it. Exact same issue
How did he fix it? Thank you for your Sub DDias. Ride Safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco a very similar way but cheaper lol. He just stick a folded zip tie part to make the gap. Very easy to redo if necessary. He showed me if that ever comes undone. He assured me it probably won't, but if it doea i know how to fix now.
Thank you for your reply. Ride Safe and have a great day.
I had the same thing with a new lever? What's the answer for that?
Happy to help. The switch inside the mechanism is broke. Nothing wrong with the lever. The switch wore down and it doesn't make a full contact as in the video. Thank you for watching and your sub Russ. Ride safe and have a great day. Hope this helps.
Great video TWR! I have a 2008 Road King Classic Anniversary and just about every major repair I had to do, your videos helped me. Thanks for sharing.
Bjamin5😊
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and your sub Ben. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco Afternoon TWR,
Just wanted to let you know I repaired my brake light like you showed on the video and it works perfectly. Thanks again!
BJamin5 👍🏾😁
Happy to read all went well. Thank you for watching and all your support. Ben. Ride safe and have a great day.
Could this happen with the foot peddle as well?
Happy to help. That would be your rear brake solenoid. It's a brake switch not hard to fix. follow your rear brake line and that's what it plugs into. screws into and they'll be two wires connections. I hope this helps. Thank you for watching and your support tino. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco after further troubleshooting, I figured out that it was indeed my front brake lever and I followed your instructions, and it seem to fix the problem and I just wanted to thank you. It save me money . eventually down the road I’m gonna replace my brake lines, so maybe then I’ll buy a new housings
@@tino1766 Happy everything worked out. It is your housing. Not a cheap fix. That's Harleys specialty. Get money out of your wallet. Ride safe and have a great day. That repair will last forever.
Just subscribed. Enjoy all of your videos. Have you done a video on brake light not coming on at all? I have an ‘07 FXDWG and suddenly the brake light does not work using the hand brake or foot brake. Anyway…keep up the videos. Learning tons. Thx
Happy to help. You know your problem has to be in the back light or wires under the fender leading to the back light. Get a flashlight and inspect and see where the power stops. Because it was interrupted and that's why you're not getting a brake light. That's where I would start I'm sorry I don't have a video on that. First check the lightbulb it's a two element bulb. Hopefully it's that simple. Test for power in the rear after that and backtrack. You'll find it. Thank you for watching and your sub Ed. Ride safe and have a great day. Let us know how it works out.
Thx! Will start where you recommend. I’ll let you know.
@@edbaisley5805 Thank you for watching and your sub Ed.
@@TwoWheelRocco follow up on my rear brake issue. I followed your advise and started my investigation from the rear. EVERY video I watched suggested the issues were at the front. By focusing on the rear light itself I was able to diagnose and fix the problem. Clearly I am not a mechanic but your support helped me fix the problem. Cannot thank you enough! Much appreciated!
@@edbaisley5805 I'm happy to read all is well. I love when people figure out their problems with these bikes. Thank you for watching and all your kind words Ed. Ride safe and have a great day.
My 2013 Dyna is doing this.
How can I fix the wiggling brake lever also?
Happy to help. Dealer will replace the handle bar control. I'm showing you that you can fix the brake light. by fixing handle. and save a little money I hope that helped Thank you for watching and your sub Carl. Any questions just ask. Ride safe and have a great day.
Hey i have an 89 sportster and the lever doesn’t have the notch that hits the button for the brake light. The push rod and brake switch move around when hitting the button so if i keep squeezing the lever it’ll just move up and stop hitting the button. Any idea how to fix this?
Happy to help. If you could take some pictures and send it to my email address ERocco 3964@gmail.com. Thank you for watching and your sub Manny. Ride safe and have a great day.
Thanks man, works for me
Happy all worked out well. Thank you for watching. In all your support Ed. Ride safe and have a great day.
Im having the same problem with my 2006 road king.....would a new brake lever fix the problem?
Happy to help. The problem lies in the switch that the handle activates. So when you build up the lever you take up the space that the switch is failing. Not that hard to do. Let us know how it works out. If you watch the video you'll see that little switch inside the brake handle. Thank you for watching and your support Unknown PrO. Ride safe and have a great day.
Thank you i will give it a try...
@@unknown_pro8988 My pleasure. Let us know how it works out.
Hey ROCCO!!! Dennis here, new rider, new Harley owner. I just bought a 2015 Dyna FXDL Lowrider and the brake light was on for a few days and now works intermittingly. By on I mean just like the running light, illuminated non stop. Now it just doesn't illuminate. If I remove the tail light socket and reposition it the brake light works for a few minutes and then goes back to not working. The running lights are fine but now no brake light and at first it wouldn't go out. No wires are loose that I can see, does this sound like the brake light switch? Thank you for your great channel and apologies if my question is not clear. The code displayed reads b2161...
Happy to help I would try a new bulb first, see what that does. Let us know how that works out. That's where I would start. Good luck with the new bike and welcome to the sport. Any questions just ask. Trying to figure out if it's from your foot break or your front hand brake.. Thank you for watching and all your support Denis. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco I changed bulbs first and neither hand nor foot work but I just checked it just now and they are back working but as soon as I ride it will die most likely. The running lights are good, just the brake lights. For 3 days they stayed on and would not go off. Thank you for your help and your videos for sure. I'm watching em all. When your brake light switch goes out I wonder does it sometime work erratically and then die, like my bike's symptoms?
@@dennisbartenbach yes, it is erotic. When this light stays on, go to your front hand break and move it all the way out and see if the light turns off. There's a small switch in the handle that controls the brake light and when they go bad the brake light stays on, so if you take the handle and push it out, see if the light goes off. That would be a good test indicate it's in the switch in the handle.
My 2006 1200 C front brake lever works brake light well . Rear brake pedal will not actuate my brake light any idea’s ? Thanks in advance
Happy to help, look at your rear brake pedal, follow the line and there will be brake solenoid and you'll see two wires connected to it. That's what triggers your rear brake light. Take a close look for your metal brake line. That is your brake light solenoid with two wires on it. This is what controls that, solenoids bad. Thank you for watching and all your support George. Ride safe and have a great day. Let us know how it works out. it's not that difficult fix. www.google.com/search?q=hd+sportster+rear+brake+solenoid&client=safari&sca_esv=55574f6ac650f86f&rls=en&sxsrf=ADLYWIJ8LTvO7GBoD3n8jdwIYQqw6bPS4g%3A1717369154484&ei=QvlcZoSMHfHKp84PkreG6AQ&oq=HD+Sportster+rear+brake&gs_lp=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_IB&sclient=gws-wiz-serp. Google search. Try eBay and you'll find your part.
@@TwoWheelRocco Thank you Rocco
My pleasure.
Hi Rocco ! I want to share this for you and your viewers. My back light would only work one time (09 sporty) and then I would have to let it sit overnight and then the same thing. I thought maybe air in the lines might cause this but as I was replacing the back brake light switch I pumped it with a lot of air still in the line and the light worked even before I had finished bleeding the lines. So my situation was the exact opposite of the light not going on or the light staying on. I hope this helps somebody. Take care !
Thank you for your comment. And surely it will help somebody. And that's why we do this. Ride safe and have a great day. Thank you for your Sub..
@@TwoWheelRocco I guess I forgot to mention it was a bad switch all along. After bleeding the line all was well. LOL Take care !
Thank you for your update. Ride safe and have a great day.
When I turn the ignition switch on it light up when I hit the front brake nothing working just the rear bake pedal works
Happy to help. Did you try what I talked about to manipulate the switch or spray a little oil on the master cylinder piston and see if you could free that up a little bit let us know how it works out.
Thank You For Your Videos... I Got My First Sportster This Summer & Your Videos Have So Far Helped Me Do An Oil Change, Clean My Carburetor, & Change Out My Brake Pads... I Was Wondering Whether You Could Help Me Out... Recently Whenever I’m Riding It & I Downshift... The Shift Lever Gets Stuck... Do You Know What It Might Be? & Do You Have A Video That You Recommended For Me To Watch
Happy to Help. What year and model forward controls or not? Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and your Sub Rich. Ride Safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco Thanks... & It’s A 2005 Harley Davidson 883 Sportster With Forward Controls
Make sure everything is moving freely and that is it adjusted properly if it's only a downshift issue there's a good chance somethings hanging up in the linkage of your shifter. everything has to move freely throughout the shift. th-cam.com/video/Fs-rUg2WDIQ/w-d-xo.html. Let us know how this works out.
I had the same issue, but on the foot brake (same principle) where the brake arm (shifter arm) rotates on the "arm" that comes from the frame, had grit, and grim, hanging the brake arm when I pressed it, it would not come back up, only when I pulled it up with my toe. Pulled it off, used still wool and paper towels to clean it, used a small amount of grease on the rotating area, it is like new. Hope this helps
Edit: steel wool, not still, lol
Thank you for your advice and Sub Steve. It will help, That's fir sure. Any questions just ask. Ride Safe and have a great day,
Ty rocko. Fix my problem
Happy to hear all went well. I'm so surprised that Harley does not fix that shortcoming. Thank you for watching and all your support Dan. Ride safe and have a great day.
Excellent! Thank you!!!
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Let us know how it works out. Thank you for watching and your sub.Mark. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco I used the JB Weld Steelstick and all is in order. Thank you again!
@@markrobinson3013 happy to read all is well. Ride safe and have a great day. And thank you for watching and your Sub.
I'm about to try this for my 2016 low rider s. How long will this last?
Happy to help. It will last forever. Follow the video and you should be all right. Thank you for watching and your son. Let us know how it works out. Ride safe and have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco so I just put everything back together and gave it a test. It Almost has it, but the light keeps staying on every other squeeze of the brake. Do you think it needs a little more JB weld?
@@youtubeaccount458 yes it does my friend, little more. let it sit overnight. Sand and put it together and you should have it. Let us know how it works out. Thank you for watching and your support
@@TwoWheelRocco so I put some more on, tried it out and it was a little too much. Filed it down a bit and then it was perfect. Went out today for a ride but as soon as the brakes got hot the front brake started to lock up, was lucky I wasn't too far from home. Took it home and filed a tiny bit more off but then I was back to square one with the light staying on 😫.
Looks like I'm gonna have to just get it sorted and pay the price ☹
@@youtubeaccount458 sorry to hear that. Thank God it all worked out as long as you're safe. Let us know how you fix it. Ride safe and have a great day
Rocco, my front brakes on my 07 ultra classic keep lock up?? I rebuilt the master cylinder and both calipers!! It still locks up!!! What do you think is wrong? florida bike
Happy to help, Front master is building up pressure because it's not returning the fluid properly. tried to re-clean and reinstall. let us know how it works out, that's what happened to me.. Thank you for all your Sub Tom. Ride Safe And have a great day.
@@TwoWheelRocco
Thanks I’ll try that!
@@thomasflynn642 My pleasure let us know how it works out.
@@TwoWheelRocco
Will do
Rocco
How can I test front brakes to make sure their not going to lock up!
Last time it lock up in middle of road!! Not good
Thanks
Tom
Brother You’re the Shit my Man, Thanks So Much For all Your Great Info
Happy to help. Thank you for watching and all your support Gus. Any questions just ask. Let us know how it works out. Ride safe and have a great day.
Thanks a lot bro!!!
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and your support Sergey. Let us know how it works out. Ride safe and have a great day.
If use a push rod cover spring works better than that way
Thank You for watching and your comment.. Ride Safe and have a great day.
Good Stuff! Thanks
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and your sub CJ. Ride safe and have a great day.
Thank you!
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and your sub.Raw Power. Ride safe and have a great day.
Good one
Easy fix for an expensive repair. Keep it out of the dealer. Thank you for watching and your sub. Ride safe and have a great day.
I've got the same thing in my dyna....
Dumbest problem to have of all the problems there is to have.... Metal doesn't wear against plastic.....
Happy to help. I agree, it's just another reason for you to bring your bike into the Dealer. They really looking for you to trade it in. But that fix is pretty relatively easy. Let us know how it works out. Thank you for watching all your support Roy. ride safe and have a great day.
Awesome!!
Happy to help. Any questions just ask. Thank you for watching and all your support unorthodoxrider. Ride safe and have a great day. Let us know how it works out.
Mine has a small screw that's adjustable.
That sounds great. Makes it easy. Never seen that before. What bike?. Thank you for watching and all your support Gary,. Ride safe and have a great day.