1995 400 xplorer 4x4 restore from storage

[Micah Gafford]

I bought this ATV from a friend who had it stored in their shed for a few years. I've been going through it getting things ready to fire it back up and get it driving around. So far I've changed out fluids, removed and cleaned gas tank. I am waiting on a fuel fitting to be ready to able to put the gas tank back on and fire up the engine. I'll follow up once I get to that point with whether or not that went smoothly.

Right now however I've got a brake problem. The brakes were locked up. I took the brake line off the master cylinder and made sure that it wasn't locked up, it works. I proceeded to try and flush them no luck. Then I just disconnected the brake lines. They appear to be blocked up. I don't know if the hose portions deteriorated or what. I've found the front left and right brake lines, although $70-80 each doesn't make me happy... I can't find anyone selling the rear brake line 1930751 or the primary 1930760 that goes to the inverted flare cross fitting. This leads me to wonder if I should buy parts and tools to make my own brake lines.

Two questions:

If I should decide to make my own can you point me to any tutorials out there on doing that and what size are these lines with the flared fittings?
Can anyone else find the two brake lines i listed for sale somewhere?

[Frank Angerano]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/142482811851
 

Here is a later year. See if its close as far as appearance. Maybe you can make it work.  And when i say make it work mean maybe have to bend a little here or there.  One thing you don't want to do is make home made brake parts.  After all its only to stop the atv!!! Lol. But seriously maybe before you do anything maybe try to remove all the blocked lines from the quad.    Hang them up and go buy a can of gumout carburetor cleaner with the small red tube on the nozzle.   Spray it inside the lines and let them sit for 24 hours.   Blow them out with a compressor and slowly work them clean.   Try to snake a bicycle brake cable trough the lines by twisting and spraying.  It may take some repetition but i bet you can get the flared line clean at minimum.      

[Nick Brooks]

Had a similar problem on my '93 QuadRunner, the front brakes were completely shot after sitting for 20 years.  I ended up replacing everything on it, except for the hard metal lines.  Those cleared out with a little persuasion.  The rubber lines were completely collapsing.  I could have gone the used parts route, but I don't like to take a chance when it comes to brakes so I forked out for new rubber lines.

[06kfx440]

I’d try

[Micah Gafford]

I tried with brake cleaner I could try with some carb cleaner tonight. The "home made" isn't as sketchy as you'd think. There are tools to do it right. Mechanic shops do it all the time on cars. I don't have any brake cable or similar around. I'll see if I can find something while I'm in town this weekend maybe there are tiny pipe cleaners somewhere...

[MarkinAR]

I've made hard brake lines for years for auto. I'm not sure that's the route to go with ATV though bc its likely the rubber hose portion is collapsed. Its also likely the wheel cylinder or caliper is seized. The orings in both fall apart if not used and then the cups rust. 

Edited May 1, 2020 by MarkinAR

[Micah Gafford]

6 hours ago, MarkinAR said:

I've made hard brake lines for years for auto. I'm not sure that's the route to go with ATV though bc its likely the rubber hose portion is collapsed. Its also likely the wheel cylinder or caliper is seized. The orings in both fall apart if not used and then the cups rust. 

Yeah, I wasn't sure if there were tools to do the hard line and hose fittings together like it's done on the atv. Someone else suggesting seeing if I took the three lines to a brake shop and asking if they could just copy they turns on the hardline and length of the hose to just put it together for me. I might call around to see if that's an option too. $300 just for brakes seems a little much to me with current options I have to replace all the lines. I squirted some carb cleaner in them and I'll let that sit overnight to see how that does but I'm not very confident they're going to come back.

[MarkinAR]

I'm not sure if they still do it but Napa used to make about any brake line in house. 

[gillies_robert]

33 minutes ago, Micah Gafford said:

Yeah, I wasn't sure if there were tools to do the hard line and hose fittings together like it's done on the atv. Someone else suggesting seeing if I took the three lines to a brake shop and asking if they could just copy they turns on the hardline and length of the hose to just put it together for me. I might call around to see if that's an option too. $300 just for brakes seems a little much to me with current options I have to replace all the lines. I squirted some carb cleaner in them and I'll let that sit overnight to see how that does but I'm not very confident they're going to come back.

we make brake lines from scratch at work and can usually match up a rubber line to fit too, rough lengths is all you would need, hard lines are easy to make just need the double flare tool. probably all 3/16 lines. i may need to do this on my sons 250.

[Micah Gafford]

@gillies_robert Do you think you could post a list of tools actually needed to do all the work? I'm thinking I know some of the tools I'd have to get but not all. I want to price out whether buying tools and then doing it myself is close enough to just buying new parts. If it's close I always go with the excuse to buy more tools 😉

[06kfx440]

A flairing kit. A pipe bender if you don’t know how to bend them by hand. Brake line with 3 male fittings. A coupler.


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[gillies_robert]

get the premade lengths and for whatever reason the coated version bends nicer. tight bends i push aircraft cable through the inside to help it from kinking, and pull it around a pipe or large socket.

[Jeff Cotter]

I have actually used weedeater line to clear brake lines in the past. liberal amounts of pb blaster and weedeater string chucked in a cordless drill. 

[Micah Gafford]

On 9/6/2020 at 1:22 AM, Jeff Cotter said:

I have actually used weedeater line to clear brake lines in the past. liberal amounts of pb blaster and weedeater string chucked in a cordless drill. 

That is brilliant... I wish I'd tried that.

I ended up buying 2 new lines and two used ones that eventually popped up on ebay. It's all working now.

Thanks everyone!