Front Brake Drag

[nilsthenomad]

My front brake has just started sticking in about the first centimeter of the lever's action. When I grip the brake it brakes fine, but I have to manually push the lever back out the last little bit or the brake still rubs a bit. Haven't put a lot of miles on the bike lately, but this just started out of the blue. I assume it is a problem with the master cylinder, as the brake is still functioning fine and tight (not spongy). It is just the lever not releasing all the way out.

[Re-run]

This is going to require a cleaning at minimum. You are going to have to pull the master and caliper both apart. What happens is that dot3 attracts water and then corrosion builds up and doesn't allow parts to move freely. So, pull it all apart and make sure you clean every nook and crevice in the the units.

In the caliper, there is  large oring, you must absolutely clean this groove or the piston will stick.
In the master, the piston there and its seals must be clean. There are also 2 holes that must be cleaned out very well, especially the small hole.

These are areas of concern on the sohc, I expect the dohc to be fairly similar.

[TOOLS1]

You did not over tighten the bolt that holds the lever on, did you? If it is too tight it will prevent it from moving freely.
TOOLS

[nilsthenomad]

Thanks for the input guys. The first thing I checked was the tightness of that screw and sadly it seems to be the cylinder. I watched a video someone had posted on disassembling the SOHC master cylinder, but not the DOHC. Do any of you guys have a link to a video of the DOHC process? Or is it close enough to the SOHC. Also I assume this will require to fully bleed the brake and to pick up a pair of the special pliers to pull the pins?

[Re-run]

The same principles will apply so you shouldn't have an issue. Check out the dohc manual for more info.