2001 Kawasaki Mule 550 Drum Brake Issues
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By Gerals
I have a 2017 Massimo 500 that is locked in 4 wheel drive don’t know if the switch is working or if it’s something else does it have a fuse for the switch
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By Alien10
This is the E Brake, the one that is on the center drive shaft rotor below the dump bed. It is NOT related to any of the wheel disc brakes.
A few months after purchasing my Coleman Outfitter 550 (Hisun) new, the E brake stopped working. Thought it had got water or oil on it as it gradually went from good holding to poor holding to literally NO holding. Been lazy using a piece of 4x4 to keep from rolling, but that's a pain. So, into the barn I went with work light to see what the heck is wrong. E brake pedal worked, but hit a hard stop and felt like the cable was froze up from rust but that was not the case. As it turns out the E brake is actuated by some kind of weird actuator lever/cam arrangement based upon the actuator lever being moved about 15 degrees from its fully released position. That makes the adjustment pretty critical with such little movement. Bolt "C" in the pic below is the adjustment bolt, held in place by lock nut "B". Working from below, here is what I did.
Removed the skid plate below the E brake. 6 bolts and washers. Next, looked at the brake pads which still had a good amount of pad left on them. Looked to be a little less than 1/8" each. Verified that the cable from the E brake pedal "A" actuated the E brake arm "D". Cable "A" pulls and released lever "D" in the direction of the curved arrow. Applied E brake and checked the actuator arm, it was all the way up with no bare cable "A" showing. Released E brake and checked the actuator arm, it was all the way down with bare cable "A" showing as in the pic below. That spring pulls the lever to fully released position. Note: I disconnected the release spring from at the lever with needle nosed pliers to make working with the adjustment easier to do without that pressure on the lever. With E brake released, loosened lock nut "B" and backed it off the lever about 1/8" or so. Tightened adjustment bolt "C" by hand just until it stopped. Retightened lock nut "B". E brake now holds securely on my hillside driveway, and releases completely. Reinstalled skid plate. Hope this might be of some help to someone as none of this is in the owner's manual or in diagrams.
up.
Released brake and rechecked the actuator arm, it was all the way down.
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By rsar
So I finally got my Quad Gear cab enclosure after waiting out the backorder for three months and to say it's been a huge disappointment is a pretty big understatement. I think mostly because I could make it work, if not for one major issue. The windshield is right next to impossible to see out of. It's a real headscratcher because the side and rear windows are okay. It's not high quality 30 or 40 gauge marine vinyl but I have Quad Gear's stand-alone winshield so I knew it wasn't the best in terms of visibility, but definitely doable for the price. Incredibly, the side and rear windows of the cab eclosure are just as clear as the stand-alone windshield. And the windshield on the enclosure is like 50 percent worse than the stand-alone. It's the same company! I don't get it. If it had just been the rear windshield that was that bad I would have kept it. There are some creases and wrinkles here and there, but I've been using the stand-alone windshield for the past three months so it's good enough not to have to shell out $600 plus for the stock hard windshield. I'd put visibility at about 65- 70 percent. The wife hates it though, which is a pretty big negative. In any case, my original plans were to have an upholsterer change the crappy vinyl out for the high quality stuff and I even sent it to a guy who ended up flaking out on me and refusing to do it. He said he didn't want to charge me $400 for something I paid $200 for. Long story, short, I decided to return it and just get the insanely expensive Kawasaki enclosure next winter since the frigid temps here are about to start climbing in a couple weeks anyway. I first put it on just to see how it would look (I took pics of course) and found that it didnt even seal 100 percent and made it drafty inside the cab. So make that two major issues. At least with the stock enclosure everything will be top flight. Doors will be nice too.
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By Gorj
I have had my E1 since late last summer and I have always noticed that the parking brake was weak or non existent. About a month or so after I purchased it I mentioned to the dealer that the parking brake did not function well. What I was expecting from the dealer, ' well bring it in and we will correct the issue.' What I got was the typical dealer response, "it may just need to be adjusted." No shit! Well I finally decided to adjust it. A very simple process need only two 10mm wrenches. Open the bed, remove the pin holding the bed to the strut and move the bad out of the way. Right in front of the electric motor is a brake disk. That is the parking brake. It has a small set of brake pads that are actuated by a lever attached to parking brake cable. There are two 10 mm nuts on the shaft to moves the pads. Release the inner nut and hold it in place while screwing in the outer nut - that is really a bolt. After screwing it in about one turn, tighten the other nut. Check the parking brake. If it is holding when activated, then you are good, but if not, then you may have to turn the bolt another turn. Do not turn to far or you will lock it up.
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