I have a Rubicon Foreman 500 and have problems with front brakes. My friend and I feel its just a matter of bleeding the brakes right. We cleaned out the drums, replaced the shoes, cleaned the wheel cylinders and replaced the dust seals. We adjusted the shoes so that the drums barely fit in. It was very dirty before but now is pretty clean. The brakes were not grabbing before we did this by the way.

We bled the brakes one at the time pumping the lever 5 or 6 times or until we felt some pressure then held it while the other opened the nut. We did this many times to both wheels until we could see clean fluid come out with not air or bubbles. One of the things we noticed is that when we closed the nut to the fluid line the little pressure we gained by pumping would get lost as the nut was tighted. Another observation is that as we were pumping and gaining some pressure we could see air/bubles come out from the tank/jar. There is a little groove or opening like pin size on each side of the jar that was made for some purpose from factory. Not sure why were seeing that.

We are basically bleeding the brakes like we would on a car. Are we doing something wrong? Are there tricks to bleeding the brakes or an atv?

Before I ordered that parts the Honda service person told me that he hasn't seen a master cylinder go bad yet. So I haven't bought it or purchased a rebuild kit.

 

One thing I would try is take the cover off of the part that holds the break fluid while your bleeding it. Also try to loosen and tighten them at the same time. Eventually it should get better unless a part has gone bad.

also dont forget to keep as much pressure on that lever as possible untill he tightens the bolt back up. Then u can release it.