Just finished upgrading my rear brakes to hydraulic and installed a brake light. Was tired of having to adjust the brake cable every few hrs. Over the past couple of years I’ve changed the factory rims to 12” Grizzly rims all around with 3” spacers on the rear with 26” Dirt devils on rear and 23” Ambush on front. Installed a 20” light bar(high beams) and given the plastics a fresh coat of khaki paint. I’ve owned her since new and figured it was time to show her some love. Have to admit I haven’t been gentle with it and its one tough machine.

 

Looks good!

Would love to do some sort of retrofit like this on my Timberwolf, I despise those darn cable drum brakes lol

 

Yeah I know what you mean about the front brake drums. I find the seals never worked well and found the brake liners would compressor me off and jam up the brakes. Really only use them for parking. I am looking into upgrading them as well.

 

Fact is, all brake systems have their good and bad points. Yamaha were "early adopters" of rear disc brakes, using them on many 90s Big Bears, but must have had problems as they went back to drums circa 2000. Then back to discs, then "wet brakes" inside the diff, not sure what they use now, but I think the most recent Yam I worked on had a transmission disc brake on the outside of the diff. Discs are fine if you use them every day, but lay the bike up for a while and the slider pins for the sliding calipers will seize, sometimes pistons will too. Wet brakes seem the most reliable, at the expense of requiring a diff rebuild if you ever need new linings.

 

I haven’t had a chance to use the retrofit yet. I’m using an aftermarket caliper for a Yamaha Rhino 660
and generic master cylinder and the oem rotor set screwed in place. I’ll pay attention to the sliders and piston on this too just in case. At least I won’t have to adjust the damn thing every few hours.

 

Looks amazing! Great job! Are you able to let me know what part numbers you used to get a hydraulic caliper/kit? Is it universal, or specific aftermarket for the Moto4?

 

I used an aftermarket caliper for an 06’ Yamaha Rhino 660. The brake line, brake switch and master cylinder are generic. All the parts I found on Amazon. I had to fabricate a mount from 1/4” steel plate. The mount for the master cylinder was made of 1/4” aluminum plate all of that was custom made to fit.