alright i have a problem. this 250 boss sat in a barn with a broken throttle cable for 10 years. i recovered it, fixed the cable, cleaned it up and it ran. it isnt the greatest running but its still rideable. now the problem: the brakes on the front are drum. i took them off and cleaned them off and they still lack stopping power. they slow u down, but not the best. the brake shoes still have about 1/2 life id say. is there any other way to get them to work? and second... the back caliper- it used to work but only when it wanted to. the rotor is rusted pretty good but it still worked when it felt. sometimes i had brakes in back sometimes i didnt. and all of a sudden they quit working period. so i took the caliper apart and cleaned it out. it seemed the piston in it was froze so i put wd 40 on it and worked it around and put it back together. it didnt fix anything. i was wondering if this caliper had pads on it in 85 because it never had pads and it seems there is not enough room for them to fit anyway. can anyone gimmie more info on the boss?

 

does anybody know about the old bosses??

 

I picked up an 86 trail boss R/es a couple weeks ago.Had the same problem! mine had a froze up cable. fixed that and everything works now I also bought a repair manual for it( a big help for tuning and all around fixes) the manual states that only 85-86 models have mechanical brakes all others have hydrolic. the pads on the 85-86 are round , about the size of a 50 cent peice. take the caliper all the way apart and pop out what looks like the piston. its not! its the pad itself it has a wear ring around it indicating replacement time. also take some fine sand paper and clean your rotor. you can find parts at bikebandit.com let me know how it turns out. ive searched for almost all replacement parts with some sucess so e-mail me and ill try to help you more if i can. godd luck.
Erik

 

heres my email adress erikkucci@comcast.net

 

thanks erik ill email u if i run into trouble