Front Brake Bagger has Harmonics noise during the final 6 feet or so of every stop : V-Twin Forum: Harley Davidson Forums

ChromeWelder · 05-14-2006, 09:32 PM

This is the second time I've had my bagger in for warrantee on noisey front brakes. Each time the dealer has "Cleaned and Chamfered" front brake pads, it quits talking for awhile but comes back in a couple of hundred miles.

My buddy at work just got a new Road Glide and the brakes (rotors?) make the indentical sound when coming to about the final six feet to a stop.

The service writter told me: "you can get rid of it for awhile..but it's a very common problem" and basically said I should get used to it. The other writter chimmed in and said he contacted MoCo to see if there was a Technical Bulletin on the matter but there was not.

Is this a common problem? Has anyone found the remedy??

bedemonster · 05-14-2006, 09:40 PM

Floating rotors and Lyndall Z+ brake pads.

hdmarsh77 · 05-14-2006, 10:13 PM

It's a very common problem. Switch rotors left to right and visa-versa. It's worked for 25,000 miles or so on mine.

bbrowncods · 05-14-2006, 10:33 PM

Z+ pads and mine no longer do that.

wvwayne · 05-15-2006, 12:07 PM

My Street Glide started doing it at about 400 miles. I can live with it for now. But I will try different pads when the time comes. What is happening is the rotors are ringing. It is not much different than a bow on a violin string. You put rosin on the bow and it makes the string vibrate as you drag the bow accross it.

Geezer-Glide · 05-15-2006, 12:10 PM

Lyndal Gold Pads. Still has a very tiny ring the last foot. I'll try the side to side swap, thanks for that tid bit.

numberone942 · 06-08-2006, 02:53 AM

I Have A 05 Fatboy. Are The Front Brakes The Same As Yours. The Last 6' Or So I Hear A Noise, Kinda Like Brake Chatter And It Doesent Do It All The Time. Stumped On This One. Realy Bugin Me Out. Went To The Dealer And All He Wanted Was To Sell Me A 250.00 Check Up. Ill Look Into The Brake Isue.

george248 · 06-08-2006, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by numberone942

I Have A 05 Fatboy. Are The Front Brakes The Same As Yours. The Last 6' Or So I Hear A Noise, Kinda Like Brake Chatter And It Doesent Do It All The Time. Stumped On This One. Realy Bugin Me Out. Went To The Dealer And All He Wanted Was To Sell Me A 250.00 Check Up. Ill Look Into The Brake Isue.

05 still under two year warranty? no freakin way I'm paying $250 for them to look into a problem... especially one as potentially serious as a brake issue...

Big Mac · 06-08-2006, 07:57 PM

06 Street Glide with floating rotors - 800 miles so far and no ringing or other sounds from the front brakes.

rides99fatboy · 06-11-2006, 08:35 PM

This topic was pretty well discussed about a year ago on this forum. I started a thread asking if others had this problem with their RKC. Fairly good number of "yeses." I took the advice of using Lyndall Z pads and problem was immediately gone. Also less dusting from the Lyndalls.

The OEM pads (around 2005 timeframe) are just plain crap. Mine had maybe 700 highway miles on them when replaced. You could look and the surface of the pad and see the uneven surface and understand why they squel. Probably about 50% of the pad surface actually touched the rotor.

My next upgrade was floating rotors more for the looks over the OEM rotors. Haven't had a complaint in over 3000 miles. For less than $60 you can't go wrong.

Trixboomer · 06-27-2006, 06:24 PM

get the Lyndall pads and you will be happy no more noise.
I did front and back on my 05 flht and she is quiet and stops nice now.

Good lUck

95 FXST · 06-27-2006, 07:31 PM

I thought I was the only one

I put my old rotors and new wheels and got that noise described. Didn't have it when the rotors were on the old (spoke) wheels.

1bdBagr · 06-27-2006, 07:41 PM

This is going to sound wierd, but i've had the same friggin' noise on my 2000 RKC for a while...changed pads (oem HD), but after a wash...for the first 3-5 miles, NO NOISE! It's really annoying. Power by HD motor company...Brakes by Schwinn/Bendix coaster brake! I'd expect something like this on a scooter...Shouldn't happen on a bike like this.

blackcherry · 06-27-2006, 10:21 PM

I posted this on another thread...no replies as yet, thought I'd plop it here as well...thoughts?

--------------------------------------------
I switched to Lyndall pads on my 06 RK Custom, but kept the stock rotors.

Horrendous noise pre-swap (frightened small children, etc.) Zero noise after switching to Lyndall, at least while the caliper/pistons/pins were nice and clean.

Some very minor noise has returned now that I've put on some miles. I'm sure that another cleaning (per "Lyndall procedure") would knock it out again, but the "new" noise is very slight...and I've got better things to do than play with Brake-Kleen.

But I just caught a thread that apparently has been running in American Iron Magazine about Harley recommending a squirt of expanding foam in the hollow hub of the cast wheels (the bike in question was also a RK Custom).

I haven't had time to go dig out the details yet (like what kind of foam is required to take the heat - contraceptive? ) but the letter indicates that this is apparently an accepted "fix" by HD.

Q1: Does anyone with lace and/or non-HD alloy wheels have the same noise issue?

Q2: Has anyone heard of the "foam fix" - official HD or otherwise? Anyone catch the full AIM exchange over the past few months? If not, I'll dig out my old copies and see what's up.

TalonChief · 06-27-2006, 10:30 PM

I've read this same thing on several forums and the only fixes have been swapping to floating rotors and/or using different pads--swapping rotors from side to side is a new one, though. My 03 FXST was loud, but I just ignored it until I wore the stock pads out and replaced them with Lyndall Zs.

I think it is just the composition of the pad HD gets from their current low bidder. Anyone know who makes the stockers?