I've had this quad for a whopping 7 months and my boys rear brakes are going bad already. They seen to have about half the stopping power that they originally did. I've adjusted the cable wing-nut and that is not it

What's the best thing to do to fix this problem? He's only had it out some 12 + rides. Granted the terrain here is either up or down, so they are used often. Is this normal wear for brakes, or do you all think it is a dirt issue and need cleaning?

Thoughts?

 

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To take a detailed look at the cause of your failing brakes, do pull their drums off. The rear (and front) hubs on the Pred-90 brand often plug "much faster" with mud / crud compared to other brands. For a visual of our front brakes (that caused a serious accident), surf: - Press Here -

If you need new brake pads, I'd recommend the pads that have slots in them. In theory, they are self cleaning. If wondering, we have slotted rear brake pads on our Pred-90. It does help. For a picture, surf: - Press Here -

If you brakes only need cleaning, you can use clear water, blow dry with an air hose then use brake cleaner fluid. This brake cleaner also removes the grease / grime that water can't remove. For a picture, surf: - Press Here -

If you haven't done so already, investiage the location of the rear hub's Plastic guard bracket. Our '03 Pred-90 had a 45 degree bracket and "could" stop its rear brakes from working properly. Our local welder guy replaced this factory 45 degree bracket with a 90 degree bracket. One of the best safety upgrades we did to our Pred-90. For pictures, surf: - Press Here -


Hope this helps....

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Spike99:

You and your pics, they are something else. You've got pics for everything. Helpful info. Knowing my mechanical skills (answer: pathetic) ...to get to the drum, all you have to do is take off the tire closest to the drum and then pull off the casing to the drum, correct? Is replacing the drum a difficult thing? ....or a few bolts and that's it? Of course, I'll check it out first before replacing it, but to get to it, was my biggest concern.

Thanks for your time.

 

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YES. To pull the rear brake drum off, one needs to remove the left side axle cap, remove its small cotter pin, unscrew the large nut and slide the hub, axle sleeve and brake drum off. For us, the outer hub and axle sleeve came off with ease. However, the small inner teeth on its drum was starting to rust on the axle notches. For this, we had to use lots of WD-40 (let it sit for a while) and use a rubber hammer (hit the edge of the drum lightly while turning the axle) to get the drum off. To see the rust on our brake drum inner groves, surf: - Press Here -

In most cases, the brake pad material wears out before a brake drum. But if you've got lots of sand / small stones in the rear brake system, it will dig groves in the brake drum. If too many or too deep of groves, replace the brake drum as well. On your brake drum inner contact surface, you may also want to take some 120 grit sand paper and cross sand the surface. The horitontal scratches allow the brake pad materials to "grip" the brake drum much better. Works for us....

Glad the pictures helped you. Sure wish people posted more pictures with many of their text based instructions. Sometimes, pictures are worth 1,000 words.

Hope this helps as well...

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