300ex rear brake question

[SnotMe80]

i have a 98 honda 300ex-i have gone through 3 sets of rear brake pads since i have had it-about a year and a half. i use my back breaks very little and they wear out to fast. i thought it was because of the parking brake so i bought the block off plate. is my caliper draging or am i doing somthing wrong? thanks
Rob

[Lil90man!!]

na its ur bike i'm on my .....hmmm 7th set of brake pads n my bikes about 7 months old and i took my parking brake off 2 days after i got it, they just wear out REALLY fast, still try'n to figure out why, neighbor has a 95 lakota sport, rear hydrolic disk brakes, still on stock brake pads rides everyday with me...??:confused:

[SnotMe80]

no i do not think it is just the bike-i ride with 3 other 300ex's and they have no problems with there pads and they still have there parking cable on to.-anyone have any ideas?

["BLAHH"300!!]

...lift your rear wheels and put it in neutral.
spin the wheel's, are the brake's dragging?

[Lil90man!!]

When i do that on my bike my brakes drag just a hair, but i can't figure out why i've tried everything cleaning them and all i've sanded all the crap off the pins i've cleaned all the mud out n it still does should it not make any noise at all from the brakes i thought that was normal:confused:

[Scott]

2 things you can check snotme80.

Take the block off plate off and make sure you didn't get mud and crud in the caliper behind the block off plate. (Not likely to be the problem, but worth a check)

Take a wire wheel and clean up the pins that the brake pads mount on. When they get cruddy, the pads will drag. While it's apart, check the piston in the caliper and make sure it's not freezing up on you.

Only other place to check is the pivot for the rear brake pedal. My 300 has done the same thing that the 400s do and started trying to hang up at the pivot.

Everything just needs cleaned up from time to time...

[yamaha1470]

on my 400ex when u spin the front tires the brakes rub. is that normal? how should i clean it?

[300exryder]

on my 300ex, i can hear the front brakes dragging just a bit -- it doesn's immediately lock up the wheels; this is normal right? I'm just about to change (tomorrow when they come in) my rear brake pads. My 300ex is a 97 and it has the stock pads with a block off kit. I use my rear brakes excessively -- i never down shift or anything -- i just hold in the clutch and use the rear brakes. This might hafta do with the fact that my previous quad didnt have frot brakes so i am just used to using my rear brakes a lot. Is it just me or do the stock 300 rear brakes suck? My former quad -- a warrior -- had awesome rear brakes. I dont know what type of brake pads were on it but they stopped on a dime and remember, i didnt have front brakes.

[SnotMe80]

yes if i lift the rear wheels off the ground you can hear the brakes dragging-should i replace the caliper?
thanks
Rob

[Scott]

No. Clean everything up before you spend the money on a new caliper. Unless you have bent the rotor, or somehow managed to damage the caliper (not sure how you'd do that one...) you should be able to solve your problem just by cleaning and routine maintenance.

[yamaha1470]

How do you clean it out good? I tried everything and they still rub just a little.

[Scott]

When mine were dragging, it was from lack of maintenance on my part. When you removed the E-brake and put the block off plate on, did you remove the worm gear? It can flop as you ride and make your brakes drag. It's not a real likely cause, but it can happen.

If you did remove the E-brake "guts" then have you removed the block off plate and made sure there was no crud in behind it?

Most likely spot is the mounting pins for the brake pads. Wire wheel them so that there's no crud or pits. They should feel smooth after you clean them. Odds are, this is your problem.

To check your rotor, you can get the rear tires off the ground and use a tape measure from a fixed point under the quad and measure over to the rotor. Now while you have the tape there, and you're looking at that measurement, spin the rear tires. If the rotor wobbles, you should see it against the tape measure.

[yamaha1470]

i am talkin abt my front brakes.

[Scott]

Check the mounting pins for the brake pads.

[Zero Z400]

Are you buying stock pads? I think some aftermarket ones might be better and last longer.


Later

[SnotMe80]

i am going to take it all apart this weekend and clean it all up-i did not take the worm gear out? should i do this for the parking brake? thanks for all you help
Rob

[Scott]

I did. You're not using the parking brake if you put a block off on it, so why leave the worm gear in there to flop around?