After letting them sit for several years, I have renewed interest in my 02 Trail Boss 325 and 03 Trail Boss 330. Of course, several years in a barn has not been kind to them but I'm getting there. One of the issues that I have decided to fix was the rear foot brake never working on the 02 TB 325. I replaced the rear master cylinder and bled the auxiliary system. I have pedal now and there seems to be braking from that system. What's new is, I noticed a creaking noise when I step on the foot pedal. I listened closely and seems to be coming from the brake line distribution block up front. So I climbed on, squeezed the front brake lever and then stepped on the rear pedal and I could feel the press of the rear pedal pulsing the hand lever. I don't remember this being the case on my TB 330 which had a working rear brake pedal. My understanding is the rear caliper is a single piston system that is operated by the pedal and the lever. My question is, what separates these two inside the caliper? Does this sound like a rear caliper rebuild is needed?

P.S. In the past I think I have only read stuff here as I usually found an answer to my question in some other post. Old Polaris Tech almost always seemed to be the source of that answer. I was saddened to read about his passing. He was a wealth of knowledge with the patience of a saint.

 

Welcome to the forums.

Don't remember any noises like that on my 2000 Boss. Not the expert OPT was, so more opinions than mine would be a good thing. If the caliper is working, I'd be more inclined to look at the distribution block. Looks like both models use the same parts for the brakes, so on paper, you should be getting the same results on both. Preferably without the noise.

 

My concern is, how is the rear foot pedal even affecting the distribution block? I thought the handbrake rear line and the pedal rear line were independent of each other with the exception that they push on the same piston. Am I wrong?