I bought a used Arctic cat 500. The foot brake was working and now when I push it down the brake doesn't work and the pedal will come up if you do it with your hand. There is fluid in the reservoir not sure if it's missing a spring or master cylinder is bad which I read has a lot of problems. Thanks

 

Jarrod, I think you have the same set up as my 02 AC 400. At least my hand brake works on front and rear. The foot brake is( teats on a bull )to me and I just disconnected it. Hand brake stops her on a dime. My 01 AC 500 has a different set up and the foot brake works fine, but guess what, I almost never use it. I wouldn't waste money fixing.

 

Could be the foot brake binding up at the pivot or the spring got hooked and pulled off. Choise is yours if you fix it or not. But a rear brake is a needed when riding down steep slopes. Last thing you want to do riding down a steep slope and the front brakes come on and send you tumbling. That why they have a separate rear

 

I think he is saying the rear brake works with the hand brake lever so he has both front and rear brakes. I recently had to replace the hand rear brake cable(it broke) on my Brute force so I had to use the foot brake for a couple weeks as I had to use it for rear brakes and to be able to shift gears as well. I still use it occasionally to shift but thats about it. I think its actually easier to use the foot brake to shift on an auto quad.

 

Yes I know what he is saying. But with the hand brake u have most of your braking going to the front. That's not what u want going down hill. It can send u rolling down the hill.

 

Zrock is right, but on steep hills with slippery conditions, I've found, rear brakes are fairly useless, and I use 4wd Lo to keep in control combined with a tight butt pucker on the seat.

 

All quads except Polaris have separate front and rear brakes. As long as both hand levers work, you have both front and rear brakes. I use 4x4 many times on steep hills(and low range if needed) to get the full benefit of 4 wheel engine braking. In 2wd, you only get the rear wheel engine braking on most models.

 

You lost me on that one. Polaris. can am, arctic cat use single hand lever activating all brakes with a separate foot control for rear. Looks like honda, yamaha, and kawi are the only ones still using separate hand conrills

 

My bad on that one, I thought Polaris was the only one who did that. Suzuki has separate front and rear too. I did own one of those once, an Ozark. No Cats or Can-Ams though, those are the only major manufacturers I have yet to own. I considered getting a Thundercat once because it had a lot of power and I just love the name. I wish Arctic Cat had kept calling the 1000cc quad that. I would just love to tell everyone I have a Thundercat when they ask what kind of quad I have. I did look at a Wildcat Trail recently but decided I wasn't ready to spend the cash to jump to a side by side. I was impressed with the power of the 700 twin in the trail though. That thing was quick, I would guess it would run dead even with my Brute Force.

 

Hmm, I swear on my 2002 AC 400 FIS, the hand brake operates both front and rear, because the foot brake is disabled. My 2001 AC 500 needs the rear foot brake on really steep trails, but the 400 amazed me how well the hand brake works. One mountain trail I ride on is really steep with fist sized rocks that act like ball bearings, most guys take the long way around, someone ended a Jeep over there last year. Both of my AC's have no problems, though going up is really dicey, all 4 tires are spinning. I checked, rear disc brake is shiny, not rusty, no foot brake, now I've got to jack her up and verify that the lever controls all 4 wheels... Oh, AC still makes the Thundercat, you just have to buy the graphics and put em on yourself. AC 1000 XT EPS.