I just bought a 96 Sportsman 500 knowing that the rear brackes don't work. Where do I start to diagnose it? The lever seems to move fine on the caliper, but I don't see anything else move. Could it be anything other than just a bad caliper?

 

I think something is missing on the rear rotor. It seems to just be held in by the caliper, and it's got a lot of slop now.

I just pulled the two bolts holding the caliper on, and the rotor comes off with it. That just doesn't seem right. Also, the rotor now has about 1/32" of room to move on the slider joints. I don't know what else to call them, but the bolts sticking out of them that allow the rotor to slide back and forth as the caliper squeezes it. I assume I'm going to have to replace that. I'm also worried about the spline that it fits onto. It's been loose long enough that I think it's worn that down some and doesn't fit as tight. hopefully it's just the rotor part, and if I replace the whole rotor, it'll be much more snug.

What is supposed to hold that rotor on though?

 

Nothing holds it on other than the caliper. I was wondering the same thing when mine wouldn't work. All I did was went out and got new brake pads, and the thing locks up like never before. They work awesome.

 

Also be sure to bleed the rear brake line. They are known to get air on the back.

 

Bleed the rears like renegade said. I had the same thing. (No foot brake at all.) I bled them last night and now it is working great.

Good luck

 

That may be one reason mine work so well. I plugged the hole on the caliper for the brake line and only operate the back with the foot lever.

 

I never made the connection until now... so the front brake lever actually does both front and rear? (or is supposed to [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] )

 

Yes the foot brake only applies pressure to the inner diameter of the rear caliper pistons. The rear caliper is "T"-shaped, which allows both the hand and foot brakes to work the same caliper, but remain separated by seals.

 

I messed with the brake tonight for a while and finally got it working. However, it still only does anything at the very end of the movement of the lever and the adjustment that seems like the obvious way to take out the slack is bottomed out already.

how thick are the pad supposed to be. Would that even make a difference?

I'm happy at least I got this far [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Now what.