As many CFM owners have found, the brakes (and other parts) are total crap on these machines. When brand new the brakes were fine. I personally didn’t care for the peddle brake operating both front and rear. But thought, whatever as long as it works. Sadly it didn’t take long to start giving problems. Occasionally I would loose front brakes all together. If left untouched it would magically fix itself overnight. After this happened a couple times I tried bleeding them. What a PITA. It took a minute to figure out the bleeders on the front calipers do not correlate with the line closest to it. Anyway I bled the front master cylinder enough to replace all the fluid with dot4. It seemed to work, but still had times I’d loose front brakes. I starting noticing a pattern, when in 4wd and front diff locked it was more likely to loose front brakes. I still haven’t figured out why. Any input here would be appreciated.
On to the foot pedal master cylinder. One day I pulled it out and the first time I hit the pedal it stuck. Brakes stuck on, WTF! I wiggle the pedal up and down while hitting the handlebar lever and swearing. It finally broke loose, I gave it a few test presses, it’s working again! When I was done using it for the day I took a closer look. Under the dust cover for the plunger I found rust on the washer. I figured it got wet while washing it and the dust cover just held the moisture in. I sprayed some lube in to displace any moisture and replace the dust cover. Things went well for a while, or so I thought. The pedal slowly got more spongy without realizing it until it was going to the floor. I bled them front and rear with the help of a friend. And this was the most trouble I’ve ever had bleeding brakes on anything. But, finally it’s done and I have a firm pedal again. The next time I used it, it was for a joyride while out camping. And I lost all brakes!! This time it didn’t fix itself overnight. It was about a week later I’m trying to bleed them again. While bleeding the rear caliper the right front brake line started leaking. Bingo! I found the problem. Or so I thought. But this line went to the handlebar master cylinder. Weird right. Any way I replace this line and bleed them again. Wow, somehow this fixed the pedal brakes too. After more confusion about how this worked and more swearing at the Chinese engineers I was just glad to be finished. Then, the very next time I tried to use it the pedal brake started sticking again. Of course this meant more swearing even louder than before. I walk away unable to use the machine. Come back a couple days later and pulled the master cylinder. Upon dissembled I found moisture and grit was getting sucked in around a defective O-ring at the fitting going to the reservoir. Definitely more swearing again lol. After checking every local shop and tons online, I could not find seals to rebuild this odd ball POS. Finally I had to resort to buying a whole new master cylinder. Before replacing it I had to flush the “mud” out of all the brake lines with brake clean and compressed air. Now it’s back together, time to bleed them again 🤬. I was able to bleed all the air out using a combination of pressure on the reservoir, gravity and tying the pedal down over night then more bleeding. It took about 5 bottles of fluid to get all the air out. The rear wasn’t a problem but because the front lines go DOWN to the master cylinder, UP to the distribution block then DOWN to the calipers it’s quite a task to get all the air out. A pressure power bleeder would help if you’re in this situation.
Now on to the junk oil pressure switch and junk rear wheel bearings. I’ve had 4!!!! Oil pressure switch go bad. Hopefully this 5th one (new style and double the price) will be the last one. I’ve replaced the wheel bearings twice and already have tons of wobble on one side. Yes I know how to properly replace them and have the proper tools. All this is on a machine with under 800 miles. Oh yeah, and a bad water pump seal, bad starter motor, 2 EPS motors, on my third cooling fan, a nut backed off in the CVT, a broken trailer hitch receiver and whatever else I’m forgetting about. To sum it up, I’ve literally spent more time repairing it than using it. Would I buy another one? Highly doubtful! That cheaper purchase price has come back to bite the f**k out of me.
Thank y’all for letting me vent my frustrations. Have a great day, cheers!