When driving through the woods or swamp where I have to turn a lot my brakes work fine. When I drive the fire lanes that are fairly straight the left brake starts to fail on me. After about a half mile the brake handle is down to the seat and barely grabbing. Once I get back in the woods where I have to use the brake a lot it starts working fine again. I've been working on this for a couple of months now. It doesn't make sense to me. I need some help.I put new pads on and new dot 5 fluid in it.
Water (swamp) keeps the tub, engine compartment, and the brakes cool, Argo Vanguards rely on the brakes for steering. When your on a fire road you don't have any water to cool the engine bay and the brakes can heat up. I have noticed this on all my Argos including the ones with an admiral transmission. It also happens on really hot days when you don't run the machine through any water. You can install a hood fan to blow out the hot air, look for water or just pull over, put the hood up and let those brakes cool.Originally Posted by wisjoe
It could also be a mechanical issue, like worn brake pads or loose calipers. Any and all of these things can cause these turning issues on an air cooled machine without good ventilation.
I was having the same issues on mine too. Ended up wiring in a bilge fan on the right side vent just to dump air into the engine bay and a hood fan over the exhaust side of the engine for when it realy gets hot.20210621_171323.jpg20210621_171311.jpg20210621_171248.jpg
dont mind the messy wiring... the brakes always have the slightest bit of drag on them and it realy shows up on straight smooth track.
Last edited by Facemelter; 06-21-2021 at 08:38 PM.
Personally to me, it sounds like the master cylinder on that side is going bad, letting the fluid bleed through the internal seals and bypass. You can either replace it or I think you can also get rebuild kits for the cylinder as well.
BUT, I do know they can suffer from overheating just as mentioned already...
When it occurs, can you stop and pump the handle a few times and immediately get some braking power back that doesn't require the handle to be pulled so far back? If so, I would definitely lean towards the master cylinder. If you have to stop and wait a little bit to get braking power back, then it sounds like an overheating issue.
My old Vanguard (not a Vanguard II) has all manual lever actuated brakes, no hydraulics. With long rides, I end up with weak brakes too, but just stopping and letting them cool for about 5 minutes makes them work just fine again. I too plan on installing some sort of ventilation fan to help...
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