That's correct, the hub is splined. What about swapping axles on your application?

 

Disc brakes are not a panacea. If they suffer as much abuse as the drum on the photos, they too will fail. I spend as much time freeing off seized sliders on front discs as seized pivots on rear drums. Also most pads are pathetic on quads. We sold a used Eiger to a local farmer, and when he brought it in after six weeks it had no brakes except the foot brake, the rear handbrake cable broke and he had relied on the front brakes, wearing new pads through inside six weeks. I regularly get bikes with the steel backing worn through and the disc eating away the piston and aluminium caliper. The Rubicon and old model 500FM are about the only quads that we repair to have good meaty pads.

 

I have a 2000 450ES. How different is this compared to the 500? In the pics it looks the same. I would like to do this conversion, but don't know if it will fit. I have already done the fronts and it was a huge improvement! When did the rear conversion become available again?

 

Drum brakes suck , I see so many where the seal fails and lets water and mud in and lose all stopping power and it gets worst when that gunk inside the drum freezes in cold weather and the wheel can't turn until you heat it with a torch.

Even when the Mechanical drum works perfect its not even close to the stopping power of a hydlulic disk.
Its criminal that in this day and age Honda still uses them on the Foreman/Rancher and just stopped using them on the new Rubicon .
Drums belong on a entry level budget ATV at most, not a expensive 420 or 500 4x4 ATV.

 

Update, still doing well!

 

EDIT: Added hydraulic to it.

I started by buying the generic 68" ATV brake cable off ebay. It was about $20. Anything longer then that and price goes up quite a bit and is hard to find. Turns out the stock brake line is about 80". So yeah, it didn't work. Here's what I had going for me: $24 generic driver side master, revised bracket, new caliper/pads:
Came up slightly short:
Turns out for "scooters" there is a longer cable for about $30. Well before I knew about that I bought an AN line from Russel. I converted the brake fittings to AN, used straight couplers, and a prefit, pre-made brake line so it was all plug and play. Perfect fit, and remember I have the 2.5" longer 450 swingarm. I bought solid washers also instead of the oring stuff that SuperATV provided.

I was even able to keep my winch control on the drivers side:

Impressions: Stops incredible after about 3 pumps. I think the master is not strong enough to make this caliper do the full amount of work its capable of. On the first pump its a decent braking amount but not enough for an emergency move...by the third pump, its got impressive stopping power. I may change to a name brand master and see if that makes it better.

 

Nice job, I like the metal braided lines vs the rubber hydraulic lines found on most.

My 350 Grizzly has a wet sealed rear disk but its mechanical and it sure needs more pressure then Hydraulic. But with its dual hydraulic front brakes and all wheel engine braking the rear brakes do not come into play much anyways so I can live with it I guess.

 

NICE! I have got to get me one of these!!!

 

I have this kit and want to run hydraulic. Your post is very helpful but im curious what happens to the reverse cable on the factory lever? Are you happy with the parts you purchased? I would like to attempt this install soon

 

I uninstalled it a while back. Since i sold my stock brake drum backing plate i left their plate/bearing on the bike. The bearing has to be replaced about every 2nd or 3rd mud ride because its not sealed well. Not super thrilled how it turned out, your results may vary.