Hello,

I have a 2003 Honda Fourtrax 350FM (TRX350) and I have installed all new pads on the atv, but when I squeeze the brake lever or use the foot brake, it just goes in all the way and there are no brakes? Is it not just as simple as replacing the pads? Or is it something else? Any help appreciated.

Thanks,

 

Sounds like it might have some air in it although I went thru a simular problem with my brakes. I bled and bled and bled them for like a month and tried every trick in the book. I even bought a new master cyclinder rebuild kit. Still nothing. Finally one day for no reason at all, I removed the springs from the brake caliber and Poof! They started working. The only thing that I could think of was that the springs were old and rusty and just didn't have the flex that a new set would and the master cyclinder just couldn't produce enough pressure to squeeze the brakes and the rusty springs. Not sure about that, it just what I was thinking. ???

 

Thanks for the quick response! The springs you speak of, I bought brake pad kits from my local honda dealer and there were springs in the kit that connected the bottom pads to the top pads, are these what you are referring to? Or did you buy additional springs that go somewhere else? As well...I never bled anything [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] im not overly mechanical, I simply removed the old pads and put the new ones on and assumed that was all I needed to do. So my problem may ly there?

Thanks again..

 

On drums brakes there called "shoes"

On disk brakes there called "pads".

The foot brake and one hand brake operates the back brake with is Mechanical no hydraulic so no bleeding involved just tun wingnuts at rear brake housing. The front are only hydraualic are the disk or drums for that year? If drum do you see a red plug?

If so,pull the red plug and turn the wheel there are two adjusters on the bottom just like on a car with drum brakeS.
one adjuster on each side of the wheel cylinder.

you just need a flat screwdriver to lever the adjuster and turn it.
if i recall correctly you lever up. (put the screw driver under the adjuster wheel and push down on the screwdriver handle.

jack it up and adjust it and turn the wheel.
once the brake shoes start to grab and slow the wheel from turning freely back it off a bit

do both sides then ride it in dirt and test the brakes, make sure one wheel isn't locking up faster than the other.

 

Thanks very much! The front wheels DO have a red plug, so I will follow your instructions for that and hopefully all works out. For that back, these wing nuts you speak of, where might they be?

Thanks again very much, this has been a HUGE help!!

 

At the back right wheel the drum housing should have two cables one goes to the hand lever and the other goes to the foot lever. At the end of each cable should be a adjuster nut if not a wingnut. You turn them to adjust the back brake shoes distance to the drum walls . You also can get some ajustment at the hand lever itself where the cable swrews into the hand lever.




You can see the two wing nuts from this picture.

 

I tried adjusting the rear brakes on mine and the wingnuts kept spinning back to their current position. Should they have some sort of lock nut type mechanism?

 

Some how you have to hold the rod so it does not turn with the nut.

 

If it was like the one I owned a long time ago, the inside of the brake drum was so wore out that I had to by oversized brake pads. You can do that or either fork out a lot of money for a new brake drum.

 

Drum brakes are a royal pain in the ***. A few things to remember:

1) Your brake fluid has probably never been changed and therefore oem crap. It would help alot to bleed the existing fluid out gradually and replace it with fresh fluid. This made the biggest difference on my bike stopping, the old fluid was just worn out and a dirty brown color. If you pump the front brake lever and gradually get some pressure, which goes away after a few seconds, you have air in the lines and need to bleed them out anyway. you can get do it yourself bleeder at any autoparts store for a few bucks.

2) Shoe adjustment makes me want to shoot myself in the foot, or enough to make you figure out a way to ride without using brakes at all. The key is with new shoes to screw the adjusters all the way out till you can't turn the wheel, then back them in just enough where the wheel spins free or the shoes rub just a little; they will loosen with riding. This is double the pain because most drums have a dual cylinder setup and you have to get both sides, laying in the dirt with a screwdriver moving that little adjustment wheel one peg at a time, then go over to the other side of the bike and do it all over. The rear drum is easy, the concepts the same but you only need to adjust with the wingnuts. Again, tighten the shoes up till the axle stops spinning then let it out a just a little. If you've done it right, you should now have pretty good pressure in both brake levers.

Oh and don't forget to regrease the water seals on the drums before you put them back on.