My brother and I both have 2002 Grizzlys and both of them have virtually non-existant rear brakes. I have adjusted as much as I could up on the hand lever, but still have barely any grab. Anyone else have this problem with theirs? If so, how did you go about tightening it up? I looked through my manual but didn't find much. Any help would be appreciated.

 

I'm with you. My rear brakes feel very mushy and then all of a sudden will grab and lockup the rear tires w/o hardly any pressure difference on the rear brake foot lever. I believe that no matter how you actually adjust the brakes, they will still perform/behave in this manner. I think that it is a bad brake design by Yamaha.

If you want to adjust them, it's fairly easy to make the adjustments but I've found that it harder to get them adjusted correctly. This is due to Yamaha connecting the rear foot brake lever, the rear brake hand lever, the rear brake light switch, and the transmission/starter safety switch all together at the rear master cylinder. It's a cluster F%$K.

To perform the adjustments, pull your seat off, pull off the tank plastic side panel on the engines left hand side (facing the bike), and pull off the small black plastic panel under the left tires fenderwell. It has two small bolts holding it on. On the rear brake master cylinder, there are four seperate components that all adjust. One is a cable is for the rear brake hand lever, another is a cable is for the safety starter switch, another is the rear brake switch adjustment, and final one is the rear brake lever adjustment which is attached to directly to the bottom of the master cyclinder.

I've tried the following adjustments:

1. Adjust the hand lever until it pulls half way in - adjust at the handlebar and at the master cylinder
2. Adjust the small bolt on the rear brake/master cyclinder until the rear brake pedal has a slight amount of free play, but is not actually engaging the rear brakes through pressure on the rear master cylinder
3. Readjust the hand lever again until it pull about 1/3 to 1/2 way in
3. Adjust the safety starter cable slop until it is fairly tight and the bike will start and shift with the rear brake pedal pressed down. This is critical. I've had to mess with this adjustment quite a bit. Too loose and the bike won't start in gear or shift w the rear brake on.
4. Adjust the rear brake light contact switch until the brake light comes on with the rear brake pedal being pushed

I am looking for a Yamaha service manual which fully explains how to correctly adjust the rear brakes.

Hope this is a helpful start.

Ron

 

I e-mailed you the instructions from the service manual, let me know if they didn't come through and I will try again. Hope they help.
Sorry but no address listed for PCDoc.