aspire suspension?

[shoggoth80]

intriguing. i am totally new to festivas mind you. i have been poking around hte forum, and it seems like people prefer to swap out the stock suspension for ford aspire parts. now is this a totaly swap (spindles, towers, struts etc)? or is it just ganking the struts/shocks, and stabilizer bars? i am guessing this could be done cheaply? sounds like a promising way to go (the stock suspensiion is crap, and there is lots of body roll... makes me paranoid to corner at speed! ha ha ha). plus i am the kind that can't help but tinker. my festiva is foul weather transportation (as i ride most of the time), so taking a few days to do a suspension mod (especially since the weather is still nice) wouldn't bother me. some feedback, or links would be awesome.

[Safety Guy]

Welcome Shoggoth. I'll list the parts, but you'll have to search for other info.

FRONT: Knuckle/hubs (all one part essentially), brake calipers & pads, rotors. You'll also need Aspire outer tie rod ends (see my post on a possible cheaper substitute from an Escort). Aspire brake hoses fit the new calipers while Festiva hoses won't (without work, anyway).

You don't need the stabilizer bar, control arms or halfshafts, which won't fit (unless you do a lot of extra PITA work which I hear was not worth it).

You might want to use the Aspire struts and strut mounts, which should be newer (at the least) and will work. The springs will need to be cut down about one coil (or 1.5 coils, I did this for my '89L and don't recall).

REAR: Aspire rear axle assembly, from the brackets down. Just remove the whole thang and put it on the Festiva! If you wish, the Aspire rear shocks ("struts") can be used. The spring perch is about 3/4" higher than the Festiva's and will give some added room for inner tire clearance. Again, you can cut down the Aspire springs to fit.


This mod gives much better braking and handling. You are going to larger, vented front rotors, and over 1 inch larger rear drums. The integral rear stabilizer bar in the Aspire rear axle really works well--you don't need more roll stiffness up front unless you like more understeer.

(For my next swap I'll try the FMS Aspire lowering springs to see if it gives about stock ride height with the Aspire struts.)

Also, there is a difference between Aspire auto and manual tranny brake rotors. The auto rotors are thicker. My rotors were the thinner ones from the manual car and I don't think you'd need more than that.

Karl

[shoggoth80]

would i need to run aspire wheels? or is the bolt pattern the same? i don't recall if that was mentioned or not... i am writing this on the fly so forgive me if i am asking something already mentioned!

[hellraiser6919]

festiva and aspire bolt paterns are not the same.

[Safety Guy]

Aspire has 4 X 100 mm bolt pattern. And standard Mazda bore hole diameter. Miata wheels will fit. Obviously, so will Aspire wheels.

I put 13 X 5.5" VW alloys on my '89L after I did it, but had to put out over $100 for hubcentric rings to center the wheels, which have larger center bores. YMMV.

Karl

[CryptokiD]

dont you know the lug bolts do all the centering?

[Safety Guy]

Not on mine they didn't. However, maybe I didn't install them properly. Is there a certain way to do this with nonmatching centerbores? I got horrible vibes at anything over 35 mph or so.

Karl

[CryptokiD]

the lug bolts, or nuts for other cars have tapered sides which match tapers on the wheels. be sure you use matching nugnuts/bolts for the kind of heel you have.

honda wheels use tapered lugnuts that look like a dish, while mazda use flat sided cones (what youre festiva has).

some times the degree of the cone, or dish, can be different, like porsche's taper is different from vw in their older cars.

this is probably the main cause of wheels not being tightend down properly.

but i can tell you that lots of OEM cars with OEM wheels do not have hubcentric wheels. like my old porsche for example.