Help! Brakes are hard!!!!!

Yesterday, I carefully masked my master cylinder and painted it. Then once it was dry, I rebuilt it with a fresh rebuild kit and my trusty Honda service manual.

Once I went to install and bleed it, it began puking brake fluid all over the nice paint and totally ruined that. I did some looking, and found out the service manual is pretty much crap as far as twlling you how to put the parts in the mster cylinder. Once I put one of the rubber thingies on the piston where it was supposed to go, I reassembled the master cylinder and retried bleeding the brake.

Success! Well maybe. I pumped all of the air out, closed the bleeder, and the brake is HARD without much travel at all in the lever. Whats going on?

I am going to double post this in my build thread...

is the wheel locked up or does it spin? Closing the bleeder at the right time is an important part of bleeding the brakes (it's difficult to do it all by yourself) you PROBABLY DON'T need a "master brake re-builder" just a friend to pump the lever while you close the bleeder they put extra fluid in the bottle cuz they know you'd fuck it up at least once

Large bore MC with single caliper? If so it will be on the firm side. I too painted my stock MC and got just a little paint on it. I then stripped it and polished it.

i pulled the bike off the stands today, and the brake actually feels good once you get it rolling and grab for the lever. i'm going to leave it alone for now and just get it double checked when i get a safety inspection done.

Did you put the seal for the piston in the right way it is important as the flex in the seal is what give's the caliper the movement the piston only slides through the seal as the pads wear.

What was the outcome of this. Did the brakes stay ok or was there more of a problem?