It's been a long time since I posted here. Howdy all!
Lesson in maintenance! In recent years I don't ride much anymore. But, I still have my 2006 Outlander 800 and rode it for first time in 18 months last weekend. Went to pick it up and rear brakes were acting funny, they were stiff and nearly locked up. So, as any good atv'er would do I just undid the rear bleeder took the pressure off, "thought" I blocked, the rear line and went and rode. Big mistake, about 1 mile down the road a person riding with me came flying up and said "your atv is on fire" and yes, it was. The rear caliper re-clamped itself and got the did so hot it caught the plastic around the gas tine on fire! I had just put 6 gal of gas in it, we put the fire out with bottled water and beer, what a waste of beer! Any who, it's out of character for me to ride something not in perfect working order and lesson learned! New caliper, and master cylinder are setting at the house ready to put on. I think the line is ok and my disc is fine, being a rear disc. And the rear disc appears to be a bear to take off.
This could have been a disaster, I was sitting on 6 plus gallons of gas with a fire under it, not good. The issue was the piston locked up in the master cylinder, the rear caliper was fine. Just never riding the darn thing cause the issues, I suspect. The atv has 1700 miles and 240 hours on it and always perfectly maintained, just not rode much in last 5 years.

 

Glad you didn't burn it to the ground. Seen a few steaming frames before. Welcome back.

 

Yah really!! I have looked the gas tank up and down and it appears to be unhurt, but the shroud that it sets in has a sizable chunk burned out of it. Dam lucky the guy behind me saw it, while riding 25mph down the road you cannot smell it. The Caliper was so hot it kept on re-igniting as water and other liquids were being dumped on it. CRAZY! I'm not sure if my brake line is ok or not, I hope it is, it appears steel braded. I may put her back together tonight or Sunday.

 

I had a friend riding my old Polaris Sportsman behind me. We were way down in a swamp, miles from anywhere on a narrow trail. Suddenly the Polaris burst into flames from the exhaust catching plastics afire. Luckily, I had a gallon of drinking water on my Arctic Cat. Just barely enough water to put the fire out. Would have been very bad if we hadn't got the fire out, trail too narrow for me to turn my Cat around, the woods were dry, scary. Always a good idea to carry plenty of water.

 

I will have one and maybe two fire extinguishers in the bag from this point forward. It's a bit of a "shame on me" deal as well. Even on my old (2006) Outy, the little display was flashing "brake" every few seconds and I didn't stop and look things over, I assumed it was because I had tinkered with the rear brake to free it up for the ride!