2014 Kawasaki Brute Force 750 Common Problems?

[bco20]

just bought a brute force 750  2014 864 miles on it any common problems with them or anything for preventive maint.? will be doing some trail riding and snow plowing when neeed thanks

[DarkRider]

Hello!

 

I have a 2005 Brute Force 750, so I'm not sure how many differences there may be, but can weigh in on some common things I've had with mine. I'm not extremely mechanical, but I usually get help with any issues I encounter and document my resolutions for future reference.

 

Issues:

1. KEBC (engine brake actuator) causes the display to shows 2WD/4WD to start flashing back and forth
2. battery no longer charges
3. 4WD doesn't engage right away
4. Quad has gone into limp mode and governs the speed/RPMs
5. Quad turns over and won't start with or without choke
6. Adding coolant the easy way

Resolutions:

1. KEBC Issue: I found some very helpful YouTube videos on this, showing you how to clean and refresh the KEBC, and the second video shows you how to test to see if it's working. I will say, after all of this, mine STILL wasn't working. And I ended up buying a KEBC bypass on Ebay. They're a bit pricey, about $90, but I don't think it's worth it to replace the KEBC as they're upwards of $300. I don't consider it to be essential. The bypass is the easiest fix if you don't care about the KEBC, simply remote the seat and plug it in, put the seat back on.  As for the YouTube videos, they are titled below. Couldn't find the forum rules and not sure if YouTube links are allowed. These are the exact titles.
   1. How to Clean, Lube and Fix loud KEBC Actuator or 4x4 Actuator: BRUTE FORCE or PRAIRIE
   2. KEBC Actuator - Checking to see if it turns after you clean/lube
2. battery No Longer Charges: If you have the service manual, it will have a troubleshooting guide for charging problems, a multi meter is required. In my case, I believe I started with the battery and worked my way through testing and the point of failure was the bus connector.  I had already replaced the rectifier and tested the stator successfully, and the only thing left in between was the bus connector. Search YouTube for the title below on how to remove the bus connector, as it's not needed:
   1. Kawasaki Brute Force 750 Bus connector fix 2005-2006
3. 4WD doesn't engage right away:  From everything I could tell, it's simply a design flaw. After reading a lot of forums, people seem to report that you have to roll the quad a bit sometimes before 4WD will engage.  As you can imagine, this can be really annoying if you're driving in 2WD and get stuck.  On, for example, a Yamaha, you can press the 4WD button and if it doesn't engage, you can just tap the throttle very slightly to get everything lined up and it will engage. On the Brute Force, I've noticed that yes, it does engage right away sometimes.  But if it doesn't engage right away when you're stuck, you'll need to find an outside way out (winch, tow, heave hoe). It's possible to rev it and turn the wheels and EVENTUALLY it will slam into 4WD, but for obvious reasons you don't want to do this.
   1. SIDE NOTE: If you choose to get a KEBC bypass, one thing that changes is the that the 4WD turns on instantly regardless of whether it's engaged or not.  By default, without the bypass, you can flip the switch to the 4WD position, but the 4WD light won't switch on until it's actually engaged. If you install the KEBC bypass, 4WD lights up instantly, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's actually engaged. My brute force is very loud, and so I can't even hear the actuator.  If you have a quieter exhaust and you can hear it switch to 4WD, this may not be an issue for you.
4. Quad goes into limp mode: This could be caused by a few things I think. For me, the drive belt was simply worn out. There's a switch inside the belt cover designed for the belt to switch it to limp mode when it's chewed up and needs replacement. You can flip the switch back to the off position after replacing the belt. If for some reason it's still in limp mode and the switch isn't on, the YouTube video below shows how to reset limp mode manually. This worked for me.
   1. Kawasaki brute force 750 belt light reset procedure
5. Quad turns over but never starts: Mine had gotten to the point where it just refused to start, period. It would crank and crank. The only way to start it was with starter fluid. The common consensus on this is that the valves need adjusting. It's a real pain, and you typically have to rip all the plastics off at least for the front ones. My apologies that I don't have a good video on how to do this. I got got some help from someone that knows how to adjust valves, and we did some SERIOUS cheating and got it done without having to rip plastics off. It was a pick your poison type of deal. Do you want to hate life as you tear the whole thing apart just to get to the valves? Or do you want to suffer through doing it uncomfortably, but save time? We ended up putting it on a car lift for the front valves and using extended mirrors to see where we needed to see. I've never adjusted valves before and I wouldn't recommend this if you've never done it. Someone who's done it a bunch can probably pull it off though.
6. Adding coolant the easy way: Adding coolant is a REAL pain. Even my service manual instructs you to basically rip apart the front end, removing plastics and such, as well as a shield around the radiator, just to be able to reach it and remove the cap, and add coolant. We were able to cheat this big time by doing the following:
   1. The shield around the radiator is easy to access if you turn your front wheel out of the way. There are a couple of screws (I think 2?) that need to be removed at the bottom. The shield is also attached at the top, but you can leave it connected.  After you remove the bottom screws, you should be able to rotate the shield out of the way enough to reach the cap and remove it with your hand.  From there, we just siphoned coolant in with a handy $10 Walmart manual siphon pump. You won't have a way to see when it's full other than way for coolant to spill back out. But it turns an all afternoon job into a 10 minute job.
   2. NOTE on this method: This method is really only good for adding coolant. If you want to do things like look into the radiator to see if it's dirty, or use a pressure tester on the cooling system, I believe you'll want to remove plastics and have much easier access to it. Luckily for me, I only thought I had a leak, turns out it was pretty much full.

I hope this was helpful. Again, I know yours is a 2014 and mine is almost 10 years older, so there are bound to be differences. But I've owned this machine for about 4 or 5 years and seem to just be applying fix after fix, figured I share some of this with the community.