Funny feeling front brakes

[Flynt]

The lever has a distinct "notchy" feel on engagement.  Smooth until the brakes are engaging, then stop/skip kind of rough engagement past when the brakes first engage.  Make the fronts very hard to modulate.

Anyone felt this before?  I imagine a rough master cyl or caliper (I wonder if only 1 piston being sticky would cause this feel).  Wondering where to start?

Frank

[RichBaker]

When my '90 was doing this, it was the contact patch between the screw in the lever and the master cyl piston..... some waterproof Bel Ray grease solved it....

[andyb]

+1, that's the likely place to start.

Also suggest taking the lever off and checking the pivot point.

[hpras]

+2 - Mine were like that this spring.  Notchy feeling at the lever.  A little bit of corrosion was built up around the pivot point.  A bit of light sanding and a dab of grease and all was smooth again.  

Edit - While I was at it I checked my clutch lever also as the clutch was dragging a little bit.  Turned out the brass bushing that the pin from the  master cylinder piston rides in had worn all the way through and the pin was carving a gouge into the lever itself.  Might be a good thing to check on higher mileage FJ's.

[mikeholzer]

I lubricate the pivot points on the clutch and both brake levers, along with the shifter pivots, on a bi-weekly basis. When I replaced the clutch lever last year (PO had bent the original one), I found that the brass bushing was oblonged, and the hole went all the way through it. I had to "ad-lib" the dimensions a little, but I machined a new one and found that the clutch lever took a lot less pull than it had previously. This is something worth looking at if your clutch is disengaging right at the grip, but regular lubrication makes all of theses bits move better, for sure.