Rattling brake lever

[malky]

Hi all, been out for a blast earlier and while wafting along listening to the wonderful sounds of the burbling motor one sound kept making itself apparent and quite frankly its starting to really annoy me now its the front brake lever rattling about in the housing - I have tried making up a thin shim to take up the slack but this doesnt seem to make any noticable difference - has anyone come up with a dodge to shut this up ? I cant carry on riding with one finger permanently on the lever !

Mal

[mick 63]

Mine does that to, but up to now i've put up with it wonder if anyone has a remedie for it?, cheers Mick.

[yeadon_m]

There is a fix but its a nervy one - and assuming you have a new lever were the brass insert isn't worn away (check first) - it involves ever so slightly pinching up the top and bottom of the master cylinder extensions that the lever goes into.
I cannot say I am recommending it because there is a chance it will crack and not bend - though I did have success on my GT750A like this. The rattle got on my nerves too!
Alternative is a very thin plastic shim - maybe the sort of plastic lots of cheap drink cartons are made of so you can get a very thin one.
Cheers,
Mike

[malky]

Mike been checking the lever out and there is no brass insert in it or in a spare one i found but i bought another spare (forgot i already had one doh) at uttoxeter and that does have the insert ill try and change it over the weekend and see if it makes a difference---watch this space.
Mal

[malky]

success!!! put the new genuine brake lever on this morning and---------silence! a nice tight fit and no more rattles - what a difference it makes - the only thing was I bust the little plastic bit of the brake light switch in the process doh- Ill give Crooks a ring tomorrow to see how much a new one is unless anyones got one kicking about surplus to requirement. The new lever has got a nice clear plastic coating on it and I noticed that my T500 has the matching clutch lever so a transplant is on the cards.
Mal

[yeadon_m]

Mal,
Great to hear a positive result!
Cheers,
Mike

[malky]

new switch fitted supplied by Crooks supplied and delivered for less than a tenner ! cant fault that service -nice morning think ill take the kettle for mot (i know it didnt need a front brake light for that but i feel safer with one fitted) and believe it or not since fitting the new lever the front brake feels less sloppy and a whole lot sharper and more positive.Passed mot ok and then the bloody rain started grr - its taken me till now to dry everything off and get it all cleaned again and i only live a mile from the mot station - Mike was right what he said about rain in Wales and it always lands on muggins here!!! :((
Mal

[Waterbuffalo]

Even though the lever is new sometimes the previous owners have done damage to the housing so it slops up and down significantly. A fix sometimes is to check the shape of the perch cavity and as Mike said you might need to pinch in the housing a tad. Be very careful when you do this as it can stress or crack by the outer edge of clamp yoke by the pivot bolt. I've had great success tightening up levers by making shim brass washers to fit on each side of the lever around the pivot bolt, this allows it to be snug and not touch the top and bottom of the housing cavity, but these shims are made from quite thin brass and as such are a bit tedious to make up.
The shims also work really great on the clutch lever side perch as well to fix similar issues over there.