my front hydraulic brakes dont seem to stop as hard as i feel they should. if i squeeze the brake handle it goes all the way to the handle bar handle. i've found that if i pump the handle 2 or 3 times it gets stiffer and stops harder for a short time. i've bled the line twice and added fluid as needed. it's possible my master cylinder is wore out. i was looking on bikebandit.com and i can either buy the whole master cylinder assembly for $146 or i can buy a "master cylinder set" for $33. the "set" looks like it could be a seal of sorts. the picture isn't very good. which should i get?

 

Ive found that most if not all the hydraulic brake front master cylinders are the same on honda atv's and yamaha atv's there even the same brand ,and you can probobally pick one up on ebay for about $40.00 bucks that works fine Iv'e gotten two from ebay and they worked great

 

If its front drums you need to adjust the brake shoes, if front discs you probably need to replace your pads. I doubt the master cylinder is worn out, if it ran dry of brake fluid you probably need to bench bleed the master cylinder.

 

small detail i left out. my front drum brakes haven't worked in about 2 years. i drive thru alot of water and the wheel cylinders finally siezed up. i just replaced the front drums with a disk brake conversion kit. that's when i discovered that i gotta pump the master cylinder 2 or 3 times when braking to get it to really grab.

 

If you have to pump the thing to get a solid feel, my bet is that you still have air in the system somewhere.

See if you can get a hold of a hand pump vacuum bleeder, like mity-vac, and try that. On a small vehicle, you have to take it easy in regard to how much vacuum you pump up and/or how much you open the bleeder to not suck all the fluid out of the master cylinder.

 

yea jeffin could be right ......

when your bleeding the system if you pump the handel one time to many youll squirt air back in your system ..I only pull twice then refil my fluid also with a full mastercylinder and the lid off you can pump the handel slowly and get air from the cylinder some times

even though jeffs vacum pump method sounds good to