I just bought a 1994 KQ 300 4 days ago. I bought the quad knowing the brakes did not work well, per the previous owner. So now I am looking at the brakes. the front brake lever (right) is very hard and only has very limited braking power, and only goes in about 1/3 of the stroke and has a very hard non-progressive stop. The left lever for the cable operated rear drum break has no resistance through the whole stroke of it when i squeeze it. It comes in contact with the handlebar grip and does not do any braking. The brake cable does move the arm on the back side of the brake plate through the whole movement, all the way till the cable stops since it hits the casing and you can not pull it any further so the cable looks to be good. The foot brake lever does the same thing, no resistance, and goes down about 2-3 inches, about double of what the specs call for.

Now on a second note, it looks like i will need new brake shoes. any suggestions on what brand you guys use?

And do you like the slotted ones?

Also, i have never worked on these sealed drum brakes, but opened up the sealed rear drum and the brake cover (#28 on microfiche) and the hub (#1 on microfiche) look like they are still attached (together). Is there a good way to seperate these two pieces? What type of grease do you use on the hub bearing?

Also i tried to look at the front shoes and can not get the brake drum off. i pulled the plug that is the one about half way up the plate and tried to push in the hole on the back side with a screw driver (only the right brake plate) (did not touch the left front drum brake) to release the shoes some but it does not seem to move very much so i justgave up on taking the drum off and squirted some brake cleaner in the hole and then closed everything up again and then tryed the brakes going forward and reverse and after a while i do have some braking happening, so i think something must have been stuck in there and i loosened it up. But i would like to be able to look at the front shoes, so any suggestion on how to remove the drum would be appreciated, thanks and Happy New Year!