Aspire Brake Conversion

[Aphelion79]

UPDATE:
Well, got the right hand side of the rear axle fixed up, new bearings, brake cylinder, shoes, hardware etc.

However, the left hand side with all the e-brake linkage was all frozen... the pivot pin with the clip on it is being annoying... e.g. the clip broke off inside of the pivot pin's little hole and I can't even drill it out... inside the housing the pivot pin on the adjuster was frozen too... messed up the press clip in there... need a new one of those now.
Hard brake lines were corroded into the soft hose fittings... need to buy new hard line and rebend it...

Oh and the new brake cylinders were about 1/4 of an inch too tall... had to file the bottom of the hole to allow the cylinder to move downwards a bit for the screws to line up... this was with several different brands... odd crap.

All-in-all... nearly done once I can fix the e-brake hardware and rebend the brake lines!

[SimonTuffGuy]

Glad you got it working! Good luck on getting the rest of it fixed up.

[Aphelion79]

Thanks, should be a pretty simple reassembly now. Just had the head resurfaced and a valve job done on it which I used to replace the old head with the stripped out sparkplug hole. Installed that in my back yard while it was snowing out. Its so nice that I can get it into the garage now under its own power! I'll keep everyone posted on results heh (although when I used to frequent these forums changing the instrument cluster was a "new thing", and there were only like 3 people who did the aspire swap... now its just almost as if a stock festiva is the odd-man-out lol!)

[Aphelion79]

Alrighty then, got the hardware for the e-brake linkage, bent my own brake lines, and got the other drum re-assembled. Today I get to swap the rear ends yay!

[Damkid]

Good luck!!

[Aphelion79]

Argh... no one pointed out the driver's side brake lines don't go to the same place on a festiva vs. an aspire lol... Gotta re-bend the a new line.

Hey, all those that have done it... did you use the stock festy location (seeing as there's a hole there) because I was thinking loop the brake line around 180* and have it face the other way would be even better...

[Aphelion79]

No one who did the swap had problems with the brake lines / hoses?

[Damkid]

i just re-used the festiva flex lines, they lined up to the aspire lines

[Aphelion79]

Hmm well mine were way off lol... either way its all put together! just realized I have one 175/80 and three 175/70's lol... needs new tires anyway as two of them are almost bald... pics to follow

[Aphelion79]

New tires and fixed the flex line! Running 175/70R13s all the way around, handles like a champ!

Next week = oil change, new dist. cap & rotor, and new air filter and I'm finished with the mechanics of it! Now I just gotta clean it out and wash/wax it (stupid tree sap lol)

Pics to come after that!

(Probably want to get some new hubcaps too... lol)