Ford aspire brakes

[20elozano]

so I was wondering why other festiva owners swap the brakes for aspire brakes and if I were to do that what are the pros and cons. Also thinking of buying some coil overs mk2, will they fit still?

[Doug Brown]

Aspire front brakes are big and ventilated and heavy.!

Manual trans brakes are 1" thick while automatic trans brakes are 1-1/4" thick. Calipers/brake pads are much bigger too. Aspire brakes are much heavier than Festiva brakes, especially when you include the weight of the knuckles, LCA, new axles and the sway bar.

The rotor discs can be replaced without dis-assembling the hubs, which in itself makes the swap worth while.

The Aspire front brakes really make a difference in stopping the car -- when you step on the brake pedal it doesn't feel like you are stepping on a sponge -- the car stops!. This assumes that you have changed to the Aspire master brakes assembly too.

The Aspire rear drum brakes are bigger in diameter, and heavier. I think the biggest advantage the rear brakes bring is that the rear spindles use a nut that easily screws on by hand and is held in place with a cotter pin, instead of being "staked" in place. However you can drill a hole for a cotter pin in a Festiva axle and then get castle nuts to use with the cotter pins.

The Aspire rear "axle" beam is heavier and stiffer so is not as "flexible" as the Festiva's - which will negatively effect handling..

For either a street or race car, I think changing the entire front brake system to Aspire is worth while, but not the rears.

[20elozano]

Also my festiva parking brake snapped could I also swap that out for the aspire parking brake?

[Rick the Quick]

I had no problem swapping the entire Aspire beam on to my '93 Festiva, parking brake cable included. I don;t remember every detail but for the most part it was plug and play.

[burningclutch]

i am very interested in doing this to my car what parts do i need from the ford aspire to install the front brakes on my festiva

[badbeardbeast]

https://fordfestiva.com/forums/forum/articles-aa/suspension-brakes/41585-aspire-brake-swap-how-to

Here's a guide and parts list to swap over the brakes from an aspire to a festiva.

[drddan]

It has been determined the Aspire beam is detrimental to Festiva handling. It is much too stiff. The Festiva beam has the flex needed to work well on the Festiva. If you want to swap to Aspire in the rear, swap the spindles, not the beam. The spindles only need one hole ground to a slot to fit on the Festiva beam. As far as the front, there isnt really that much weight added to the front to make any diff. The real advantage, is the fact the rotors are not captured, like the Festy rotors are. IDK where the measurements came from for the width of the rotors, but they are not near 1 inch thick for manual trans or 1 1/4 thick for auto trans. More like 3/4 manual and 7/8 thick auto

[ryanprins13]

This is why the festiva rear beam is considered independant suspension:

https://youtu.be/A7bc_Br4nhg

This is why the aspire rear beam is worse for handling:

https://youtu.be/9_l9SsyZVeA

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

[Hardluckharv]

Thanks for the info Ryan I'm heading to the junkyard this week end to pull the aspire brakes and was going to get the rear beam. But now I'll just grab the brakes and hubs off the rear along with front I'm guessing I need the aspire emergency brake cable. Along with the master cylinder

[ryanprins13]

Thanks for the info Ryan I'm heading to the junkyard this week end to pull the aspire brakes and was going to get the rear beam. But now I'll just grab the brakes and hubs off the rear along with front I'm guessing I need the aspire emergency brake cable. Along with the master cylinder

No problem. Sounds like a good plan! I don't remember which cable you need, I think you only need the aspire cable if you use the aspire rear beam as the aspire beam is wider? But i really don't know for sure. The aspire booster/master cylinder is important to do too. I did a front aspire swap and kept the festiva booster-the braking isnt nearly as nice as on others with swapped boosters

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

[needragr]

This is why the festiva (Aspire) rear beam is considered independant suspension:

Who in their right mind considers that an IRS :highly_amused:stbu