01 Arctic Cat 300 Brake Problem

[Scott Stein]

working on my grandpa's 300 Cat. He told me there was no brakes which there isnt. No fluid in resvoir. I only see a brake line going to right rear. How do I go about bleeding them? Thanks

[Black_Bay]

I believe that model as front and rear hydralic discs. First figure out why there's no fluid. You say you only see one line. I'm guessing that the front lines were ripped off somehow. There should be one line for each front tire and maybe one for each rear wheel. To start you'll need 2 people unless you're arms are 10 feet long. Once you make sure there are lines going to where they need to be and are in good shape, fill the resevoir and pump the brakes. Hold the lever in and open the rear bleeder screw on the caliper. The lever will go right to the bar but hold it in until you tighten the bleeder. Pump the brake until it's hard again, hold it and loosesn the bleeder again then tighten it. Keep doing that until you only get clean fluid from the bleeder. No air allowed. Move to the right front wheel assuming you don't have a left rear brake and repeat the sequence. Next go to the left front and repeat. You want to move from the wheel furthest away from the master cylinder to the closest. Important!! Keep the resevoir filled with fluid so you don't pump air in the lines. Check it often. You can put a piece of hose on the bleeder screw to keep the mess to a minimum. Run the hose into a clear bottle to you can see what's going on.

[Dave S]

I've never done it, but have heard of a pump that's basically a serenge to bleed brakes. MacGyver might know what I'm talking about.

[Macgyver55]

Sure, its simply a suction pump used to pull the fluid through the system rather than pump the brakes. You just connect it to the open bleeder screw and put some vacuum on it with the pump. It sometimes easier to do it that way if you dont have help available, but the way Black Bay described will work fine too.

[Dave]

I thought I read (and I just can't remember if I tried this long ago or not)that you can attach a hose to the bleeder screw and then drop that hose end into a bottle of brake fluid. Then open the bleeder screw and pump the brake lever --filling the reservoir when it gets low--. The air in the brake line gets pushed out of the brake line and by having the hose in the bottle of brake fluid, it doesn't allow any air to get sucked back up into the line when pumping the brake. This is suppose to be a one person job doing it this way.