1996 Arctic Cat Bearcat 454 Left Rear Hub not available

[Myrtsbnye]

Hello All,

I have a 1996 Arctic Cat Bearcat 454 and am in a bit of a quandry. I had a bunch of work done on it over the past couple years...new carb, rear brakes, rear axle and bearings. When the rear axle was replaced the shop noticed the left rear hub was stripped. Problem is, the part (1502-178) is no longer available. I've checked junkyards, ebay and other online parts sites across North America and nothing available. Hate to park the bike after all this work just because of a simple hub. 

I have two questions...the front hub (part number 1502-177) how much different would it be from the rear hub? This part is readily available. Would the axles be different diameters?

If these are two different parts and we can't make them work, is it possible to take the existing stripped hub and just weld it to the axle? I know it may sound drastic but was wondering if it would not be too crazy?

Thanks for your time

[Jim Denton]

I just looked on ebay and found 2 for sale pretty quickly. The p/n's don't match the one you gave though. Arctic Cat says the 1502-172 replaces the 0502-042 which leads me to think it should work.