I just got a left over 03 TBX and the brakes are terrible! They were really bad, but I took them all apart and sanded the pads and disks and cleaned it all up, so it better, but still bad. This is my first Arctic Cat. Someone told me that AC has the worst brakes out of all of the quads, is this true? My other 4-wheeler is a sportsman, and that has the greates brakes ever, so this is a big difference.
I can't even lock up the tires on gravel. I have 26" mud-lites, so that probobly doesn't help, but it still seams too bad. Any advice?

Has anybody ever tried taking the brakes off of a sportsman and using them on the AC?

 

Got3gofast; How many miles on it? If its a low mileage new one the brakes need to finish breaking in. There is a proceedure for new brake which entails bursts of speed and then stompin' the brakes. If it's older, are the brakes spongy? If so, bleed them. You might need to check the pads, If they are glazed(smooth and shiny and slick) then replace them. Go after market, better braking and last longer.

 

the only thing that sucks about cats, the BRAKES

 

How old is it? How many Miles ? Check bearings they will make the brakes feel bad also.

 

it is an 03, but we bought it 2 weeks ago, it had never had gas in it, so they set it up. The brakes were a little rusty from sitting around for a year, and thats why i sanded the pads and disks down. Now it has about 30 miles on it. I tried stomping on it at all different speeds and holding the brake while accelerating. They are better than they were, but still bad. The brake does feel spongy, I was going to bleed it as soon as I get a chance. The rear brake (foot brake) is the worst one of all, there is no way you can even lock up the rear tires on gravel.

I'm not impressed at all, this isn't what I expect when i spend that much money on a new machine.

 

I must confess, the brakes on our 04's are crappy too. I didn't know how bad until I rode a friend's Polaris. Even my buddy's '82 Honda TRX has better brakes. I don't know what's wrong with Cat... Other than that, I love the machine.

I just make sure I can coast to a stop whenever stopping is called for [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

This may help, but I will mention that my knowlege is not necessarily all first hand.

I have read that new AC's (and I would guess others) need to have a break in period for the brakes. I can understand that based on some problems and research I have had with regular car and truck brakes. Basically on the car/trick side you actually should go through, as was mentioned before, a period of start/stop bursts. When I do a car I make several 0 to 20 to 0, then o to 30 to 0, then 0 to 40 to 0 passes. I make smooth stops, not harsh stops. I try to make around 12 to 15 total passes(3/3/3 or 5/5/5). The idea is that you heat up the pads gradually and evenly and allow some material to transfer from pad to rotor and rotor to pad. You want to avoid flat out baking them right out of the box as this will cause the resins in the brake material to surface and eventually harden which is what causes the previously mentioned glazing. If they are glazed they are junk, pitch them.

That being said I will note that I have not seen what I would call an noticable difference in stopping power at the start vs the end of my break in runs. Given I am not taxing them for an all out stopping power test. In other words I see the break in as a way to extend the life of the brakes and not necessarily as a method to improve their stopping power.

How does this relate to quads? Well I am not sure. I would assume the brake material is similar if not the same as a typical car/truck pad. Perhaps a little less agressive due to weight differences. Total guess here. As I said, I have read quite a few posts about improvements after a break in period. This goes against what I have seen with cars/trucks but I have to admit, based on posts, that a break in on a quad is necessary for actual performance.

Any way, what does the manual say? You may want to just drop it back on the dealer.

As for the foot brake, well that may be a different story. I am not up on all the models but on my 01 and my buddies 02 we have a smaller caliper that is manually actuated by the foot pedel. There is a larger primary caliper that rides on the same rotor that is actuated along with the front brakes. On both of our quads the pads on the foot brake caliper is easily 1/2 the size of the primary hyd. caliper. There is not a lot there. I either use engine braking or I come up on the hyd. brakes a tad to brake on all 4 tires then lay on the foot brake to apply a little more to the back end if I want to lock it up.

Brent

 

yo i gotta 04 ac 400 4x4
and the brakes work awesome

 

Got2gofast,

It will take a while to get the brakes "burnished" as they say. The best thing I have seen that will get your brakes working well fast is getting it into the mud and getting the grit on them. It will rough up the rotor and pads and in no time it should lock up all 4 tires. Otherwise you can do bear and tta say- accelerate and then brake. The downside to that method is that you need a fairly large area to do this to get the speed needed to get the job done. The hand brake operates all 3 hydraulic calipers on the machine- 2 front and 1 rear. The foot brake on the 03 is mechanical and useless- its not ment to be used as a primary brake- just for emergency use. I have the same thing on my 01 and I took the pads out because eventually the mud wore them down to nothing and I never used it anyway. In 04 they went back to the same hydraulic setup as they had back in the early years and unless its bled properly and adjusted right its worthless too. For 05 they have yet another foot brake design that is better but I have yet to see one adjusted properly from the factory and in my opinion is still not as good as what it should be. Give it some time and they should work fine.

 

i usually take mine and run them hard right away and don't stop slowly i always lock them up hard at first and yes right away you gotta give a lil more stopping area but i am running 27 inch mud tires and i can stop on a dime now i got better brakes then most anyone. when i buy my wheelers the dealership bleads the brakes for me and stuff and then they take it out in the lot open it up to about 40 mph and lock the brakes up and make about 10 to 15 passes doing that but like mentioned the foot brake is useless but if i grab to much brake all 4 tires will lock up solid which is what a person wants for emergencies but good luck