Anyone know how to get the foot brake on a sportsman to work properly? The brake pads look to be in good shape, but the foot pedal goes right to the floor with no resistance. Any tips?



lukester-- I have heard that bleeding the auxiliary brake lines often resolves this issue.

 

My atv did the same thing, the rear brakes need to be bled free of air. to do this you need to follow the brake line from the foot brake to the rear caliper because the rear caliper has two bleed screws so you need to make sure you bleed the right one. It took me 4-5 times bleeding to get the foot brake to the correct operating position but make sure you keep an eye on the rear brake fluid reservoir to be sure there is always fluid in the reservoir.

 

Thank you both. What kind of fluid should I use?

 

any dot 3 brake fluid from a parts store. i believe its dot 3, should say on the cap.

 

some problem with mine. i bleed the air out a couple of times and still no rear break. i will just have to keep trying. good luck.

 

I've got this same problem on a 2000 Xplorer. No pressure at all and no caliper action. I've set a heavy weight (car battery) on the foot pedal for the back brake, loosened the bleed screw, and got nothing to come out. I even went so far as taking the bleed screw all the way out, and still nothing.
The hand brake that controls both front and rear brakes, is very stiff and eventually, slowly, stops the machine. However, I can't get it to bleed at the rear either (I haven't tried to bleed the front yet).
This is somewhat puzzling, seeing how the system is so simple.

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas?

 

my tb did same thing this spring. rear foot brake worked fine all last summer but went to the floor this spring. bled rear brake and its perfect now. the trick to bleeding some brakes is to rapidly pump the master cylinder until you get a hard pedal then hold pedal and open screw. close screw after pedal goes down. keep the rapid pumping going and you will find that every time the pedal travels less and less each time the bleed cycle occurs. now my rear brake is fine. try the rapid pump before giving up.

 

Had to nearly empty my rear reservoir 3 times before I got all of the air.... She has been working fine ever since...


ZMan079

 

mistertinker,

I tried the rapid pump about 6 times with no luck - no fluid out the bleeder and no noticable dif. in the brakes.

OK guys, I did a search on rear brake problems. Seems to be a real problem for us Polaris owners to get the rear brakes working.

What I tried...... I did a rapid pump and hold down on the rear brake. Loosened the bleeder to the rear brake and then retightened. let pressure off rear brake. Repeated this at least 6 times with no results. No fluid came out of the bleeder and yes, I had the bleeder loose.

In my search I see many who just live without it. I really need the rears when going down some steep hills.

What can I try?

 

Lukester, I had the same problem on all three of my polaris's. At one time or another (when they were in for something) I had the dealer fix it. He said that he just bled the brakes. They all work great now, they can lock up the tires. But I don't know what he did differently. Maybe ask your dealer what to do, mine knew how to do it.

If I see the tech kid again soon I'll ask him.



lol this is the thread I created for you because we did not want it in our useless thread, isnt it? I didn't actually have the problem