I'm riding a 2001 500. Tonight the parking brake decided to loose pressure after I parked the machine. Well it rolled down a hill through 2 horse fences and stopped by the old apple tree! Since I bought the machine the brakes have been marginal. I did a full brake job, but I still have to pump the brakes to get them to really grab. They were bled when the job was done and there is plenty of fluid. Has anyone else had issues w/ these brake systems? Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks Bob

 

I had that problem on my first quad when i had to replace the whole works on my 1986 Honda TRX350 Foreman 4x4 , it had drum brakes front and rear and i had to replace everything except the mastercylinder ; i still had a very hard time getting all the air and old dirty brake fluid from the system !

The trick is to flush all the dirty fluid out of the system before installing the new cylinder's or caliper's before you hook the brake line's to the new or used one's if you didn't replace them when you did the brake job , then use the correct type fluid when you start bleeding the dirty fluid from the cylinders/calipers ; use only DOT4 brake fluid not the same DOT 3 that's used on car's and truck's !

Even then the job can take a lot of bleeding the old fasion way of pumping up the brake lever and holding it down while you're having someone opening and closing the bleeder nipple before you can release the lever and pumping up the pressure again and again , there is an inexpencive vacume pump that has a plastic bottle you can use without having to pump up the brake lever and foot pedal to bleed them ; they work pretty good the more expencive ones work better though !

And i have been using a proceedure that you can do without having someone's help to bleed them , you need a peice of clear rubber or plastic fuel or vacume hose that fit's over the bleeder nipple and a container ; you just pour enough clean brake fluid in the container to submerge the hose into the container and open the bleeder nipple and slowly pump the brake lever and slowly release lever untill all the air is out of the line keeping the mastercylinder topped off with fluid then close bleeder nipple and go to the next wheel untill you have done all 3 !

And one more important thing when bleeding the brakes , alway's start with the wheel that's closest to the mastercylinder ( in the case of the Foreman ) the right front , then the left front then the rear wheel ; and again make sure to keep the mastercylinder topped off or you will get more air in the system and have to start all over again !

Sorry for the long reply , i just wanted to touch all bases on this proceedure so you can fully understand the correct way to do the job right and save a lot of time getting it done right the first time ; i hope this help's !..........

 

Good post Willibee.

AC's are noted for difficulty in getting your brakes back when you loose the origonal factory vacuum.

I have been thinking about this issue and a solution for it. I think the problem is in the connector box. When you bleed one line it is not getting all the air out of the block. So I have been thinking of running rubber hoses off all three brakes at the same time with some appropriate "T" connectors and cycling the fluid back to the mastercylinder. This would bleed all three at the same time, and hopefully get all the air out.

 

buckaroo50 i don't what the proceedure the Dealerships use to bleed the brakes cylinder's to build up the brake pressure back up to factory pressure like they are when new , but i have a freind who run's a Lifetime Muffler and Brake center for Auto and Truck center ; they use a recyler machine to flush out the complete Brake system that flushes the system of the old contaminated fluid and air,with new clean Brake fluid !

I think the big Dealership's have the recyler to flush the old fluid from the system on quad's now , as i do my own brake work and all my service and repair on our riding group ; i have to do it myself to save money just can't afford take them to the Dealership's anymore !

But i had to rebuild the rear brake's on my 88' GMC S1500 Jimmy 4x4 MPV a few week's ago , and i bought new rear brake cylinder's and shoe's , and i called him to get an etimate for him to install them for me ; and even though i had all the part's his quote was $90 Dollars for installation and use of the recyler !

So i had to do the job myself for lack of the money just to use the recyler , and i saved the $90.00 doing the labor myself because the brake and cylinders was only $34.59 for the part's witch i could save the $90.00 doing the job myself ; even though it took me longer than they could it was worth it for me !

I learned how to do the one man proceedure back in the 80's on the while doing all four cylinder's on a 1967 Ford full size longbed truck with a paper in the new Borg Waner cylinder box showing how to do the work without having someon to help me , so iwas able to do the work myself saving me the $90.00 !

I so far i haven't had anything but the First complete serviing on my 06' AC 400 FIS Auto 4x4 without taking it to the Dealership , and with my knoledge of Small Engine Service And Repair back ground my AC Dealer whom i've known for 30 yrs. when i do my own service she put's it in her Computer as work done at her shop !

I think you have something there in your plain's on fixing up a junction of all the line's into one bleed valve to do all bleeder's , so you could bleed all at one time ; and let us know how it work !......

 

So everyone thinks its just air in the lines? Thanks for the direction, I'll let you know how things go.