guys with hand brake
 

ok Im having some problems with my hand brake on my hammerhead I cant get it to work for nothing, that bolt that sticks out of the caliper how far is that supposed to be threaded in? forget to mention its a brand new caliper and I see the lever moving when I apply the hand brake but it doesn't engage? il have to take some pics of the problem im having, im not going to start riding it till I make sure I have all the little bugs worked out correctly.

the bolt sets the piston depth in the caliper, you want to run that in so the pads are as close to the rotor as possible, hopefully avoiding drag on the rotors while running with no brakes applied. That particular type is finicky. I just went through mine and to get the parking brake to work well, i end up with slight brake drag while running. these calipers don't seem to "float" back to the retracted position as well as they should.

Bingo u hit it on the head x bird, my brakes do the same thing I'm even thinking about deleting the entire rear brake setup/parking brake and just keeping the fronts on and making something that will hold the front brakes applied for parking

Im thinking even more here the front calipers seem to work much better then the rear one and the rear one like I stated is brand new, I'm sure if the yerf came with that single rear disc brake setup that the 2 fronts would still be better breaking quality? Unless I'm wrong

This is the same set-up that alot of quads come with. It is not a good design. It doesn't work and it causes accelerated pad wear. They make block-off plates that delete the parking brake. They are around $10-$20 for most quads. With some research you could probably find one that fits the caliper on your buggy, if you are wanting to lighten it up.

Some have done away with the mechanical brake and started using a simple "line lock" or shut off valve in the hydraulic line to serve as a parking brake. The valve alleviates the problem of pad wear and resistance.

hmm interesting wouldn't there be pad wear either way though if the mechanical brake is applied anyway? Im really leaning towards just deleting everything, rear brake and hand brake, and trying just front brakes and see how it works. not really sure yet

all i have are rear brakes, so deletion is not an option. )))))

Lol mine has front dual brakes :-)

I discovered yesterday that the Sunl rear brake (my old single seater heap o parts) have a mechanical parking brake caliper separate from the two hydraulic calipers. Nice simple setup. Just stole the cable from it for my daughter's buggy. (doing a single seat conversion and pedal move job on it) kids grow fast, who knew LOL ...

I have the mechanical rear parking brake, so I just removed the handle bracket and cable to the rear brake caliper, never used it anyway! It was just in the way so I reduced a little weight and got that annoying lever out of the way of my right knee!

My cable is broken and was considering this as well. I understand they are problematic anyway. Also, too confusing to explain both levers to new drivers.

So if I understand this correctly u put a mechanical parking brake on it? If so have a link or any info on it

here's the one on my sunl swingarm. doesn't seem to retract all that well from applied position, may just need clean and lube. if that's the case, i'd cut it off including the mount bosses and it'd be yours along with the ratcheting handle for $20 + shipping. you'd need a cable for it. lmk if you have any interest in it, and if so i'll see if i can get it to work better.

"jman" I miss spoke on that, I have the parking brake that came on the buggy, I just disconnected it from the machine & yes "Yota" I did attempt to use mine at first, but it would just stick on me so away it went!

so what do u use then for when its stationary?

Well when I'm at home its simple enough of course, and when I'm out trail riding its not very hard to find something to "park" it up against. I've yet to have any issues with it, but I do have a small neoprene chock block if needed!

Mine does not move if the auto choke is off, and since all we have is flat land here, I'm not sure I would use it anyhow.

Really the only reason I would want it to work is on cold or cool starts when the choke kicks in, but I am looking to remove that as well in lieu of a manual one.

I think he posted this in the wrong thread lol

yeah I park both my buggies in the shed so I guess I really don't need it, the yerf sure don't have it, so I guess its no biggy, I just thought it was a really cool option to have that's all. im going to be hopefully be working on both of them this weekend.

BTW here's an idea for a parking brake on yd and I'm sure other karts as well
http://home.comcast.net/~mburnette/yerf.htm

scroll down towards the bottom and you'll see a caption saying something like "simple parking brake"

Nope. You asked what we did to keep it stationary. I replied with an answer, and a rebuttal to question that is commonly asked. That is all. I mentioned the choke as an outside opinion, because we all seem to hate it.

Lol so if u park it on a hill ur going to tell me its not going to move because the choke is off?

I'm not sure if you are serious, or trolling. We don't have hills here, so it's a moot point. The only instance I can see using a parking brake at all, is in the case of a cold start, in which the auto choke would be 'on'. Simply putting a 2x4 under a wheel generally keeps it from moving.

I think he's just chiding you Yota! lol mines doesn't even roll off when I first start it up & the choke engages!

I already use the 2x4 method on the yerf and yes I'm kidding if ur on a hill of course its going to roll, I'm probally taking the parking brake off tomorrow anyway as its a little bit in the way of my leg

That was an issue with me too, my knee kept bouncing off of the lever!