Wilsons Sandbox

I need help from the collective wisdom with the failed front brake on my son's 1990 KLR250! Symptoms: 1) While riding along the other day I noticed that the front brake lever had gone "limp" for the first half of its travel. No resistance at all for the first half of travel, it just flopped. However, at midpoint it activated the brake with normal resistance and normal stopping power. Noticed that the master cylinder piston seemed stuck and was not comming back out all the way, thus the loose lever. I grabbed it with needle nose plyers and pulled it out but the next time I pulled the lever it stayed in again, but the brake worked. 2) I thought maybe it just needed to be bled, air bubble or something, so I replaced the fluid and bled it using Russel speed bleeder. This fixed the piston sticking problem but now the entire travel of the brake lever was VERY mushy. The lever could eaisily be pulled all the way to the hand grip and braking power was now only 10% of normal. 3) I thought maybe there was something wrong with the old rubber brake line so I replaced it with a Fastline SS line last night. Much too my surprise the master cylinder refused to pump any fluid into the new line at all. Was unable to get any pressure at all in the system! 4) Called the local Kawi dealer and they want $217.60 for a new master cylider!!! Am I missing something obvious? Is the master cylinder really dead? Does anybody know a cheaper place to get one? Visually it appears to be identical to the master cylider on my 1996 KLR 650. Thanks for any help. John "Rider" Shepherd (Portland, OR) 1996 KLR 650 A10 2000 Super Sherpa (wife's) 1990 KLR 250 (#1 son's) 1986 Montesa COTA 123 (for sale) 1979 Yamaha DT 125 (#2 son's) PW50 (looking) (daughter's)