Hello everyone.

So I was one of the lucky ones to have the awesome water pump leak. I have a 2017 zforce 800 trail and when bought new it leaked a few drops here and there but finally stopped ish around 400 miles or so. But right at around the magic mileage 1000 miles it started to pour out so fast I could not keep the overfill container full. So to the dealer it went for over a month and they tried to fix it 3 times! The first 2 times they "repaired" it was leaking when i picked it up or it was worse than the first time I dropped it off. The final time they replaced the one side of the engine case cover where the water pump is and rebuilt it again. Apparently its not like a car and its build into the engine so its impossible to just replace the water pump with a whole new sealed unit. So now it seems to be fixed with it leaking. I have since put almost 300 miles on it since the repair and no leaks. BUT my issue now which it started after the 2nd time they "repaired" it it makes a weird high pitch squeal noise like what a bad car power steering pump sounds like when i start it cold and first few cold starts. Once its warm the noise goes away or when the pump starts leaking it goes away. My dealer is aware and i sent them a video of it and they apparently sent it to cfmoto and they said it sounds like my one way bearing on my cvt clutch/ belt is the noise. But that does not make any sense ,since it never did it before, and the noise would not be related to engine temp and it would be constant with it running not only on starting. I maybe thought of the starter making the noise, but its never started hard and also seems odd it happens after the fixed the water pump. Ill try to attach a video on here if anyone has any pointers. But as of now, my dealer said don't worry about it and just drive it. Luckily i have extended warranty, but Im traveling from WI to hatfield mcoy WV this summer and i dont want it to fail out there.  THanks so much everyone and your wisdom!

I couldn't attach the mp4 of the video, but i uploaded it to youtube,
https://youtu.be/xwG1g_2nqx0

Deverick

2017 Zforce 800 trail
Elka stage 3 front and rear ( amazing!)

[2015 Z Force 800 53/Trail EPS]

That...is the one-way spragg...aka Overriding clutch on the starter drive slipping...99.99% sure.  It will need to be replaced and if the surface it rides on the rotor is scared or marked in any way, it too will have to be replaced. Mine slipped once just the other day but it was pretty cold and hasn't done it again. Here's the part and number:

wow thank you so much for your reply! You're truly are a lifesaver on this forum! Is it just coincidence it happened after they worked on my machine? I can't see how its related if its the starter. Why does it go away when the engine is warm?

[2015 Z Force 800 53/Trail EPS]

wow thank you so much for your reply! You're truly are a lifesaver on this forum! Is it just coincidence it happened after they worked on my machine? I can't see how its related if its the starter. Why does it go away when the engine is warm?

Well, keep in mind all this stuff is cheap Chinese stuff and all it takes is some one in some shop to bump the starter a bunch on a compression strokes to take the roundness off the rollers and make slight flat spots. Once those get flat spots the camming action quits and they slide...hot or cold...it's over...and yours is getting worse every time you hear that. Pretty soon it won't grab enough to rotate the engine..just squeal as it turns. There are also little springs in these that can come apart too.

Like this one:




This one you can see a few with flat spots:

So I had my machine in the dealer for  this repair since I have extended warranty. They took it all apart to replace it and actually found a piece of glue that was stuck in there. They removed it and everything else looked good and put it back together and no more noise when starting. Hopefully all is well but I got it back and it seems fine. i wonder if when they replaced my water pump something related to that had the glue that got shoved in there somehow? Idk just happy they didn't charge me the deductable and did the labor for free!

[2015 Z Force 800 53/Trail EPS]

Good. At least it's fixed.