Hello everyone! I have a 96 Yamaha Timberwolf 250 4x4. I am having issues with the braking. The issue is that it's doesn't brake on a dime like I would like it to using the hand brakes. If I step on the foot brake it brakes pretty abruptly as I would like it to. Is there anything I can do to better tune the brakes or is there something that could be preventing the brakes from working fully. When I am out riding trails and such the braking gets worse and sometimes won't stop. I am also wondering if it is possible to switch my cable brakes over to a hydraulic style and what that would entail me to do. Thank you for any info you all might have and enlighten me as I am new to the ATV world of things. Thanks!

 

If it has a flexible line, replace it… something that old probably has swollen internally over time. Even the solid lines can corrode internally over time too

 

Yamaha seem to have tried every braking system several times over, and never settled on anything. Parts book for 96 Timberwolf shows cam and lever drum front brakes but hydraulic lines going to it, which can't be right. With drums, you make sure the surfaces of the shoes and drum are clean and dry, I rub with coarse emery to roughen them. The pivot cam tends to seize, so ensure it is free to rotate, remove and de-rust it if it isn't, lubricating it with grease when you put it back. Cables stick, but tend to keep the brakes on, so you know they are if the brake is binding, having first made sure pivots etc, are free. Once a cable is sticking they don't usually free off, so I almost always just fit a new one.

Hydraulics don't like being used as a parking brake, note that the big makers never do this, so your parking brake has to be cable.