Sway Bar-Front AND Rear

[leapin]

Ok. So I put the aspire front sway bar in. No biggy. Took it for a spin. At low speeds it handles much better than stock. Once I brought it up to speed I found it understeered.


It got me to thinking. What makes the Aspire rear beam so great. I went over to Mike's(sasquatch) place and took a look at his. It looked like a festiva beam with a thin bar running inside the torsion beam. Whoopie I thought. I couldmake that. Mike had an old festiva beam laying around so we looked at it. "Look the holes are already there" Mike said, "you could just run a rod through it" Well thats what I did. Now there is two sets of holes in the festiva beam. One where the aspire sway bar is and one about an inch ahead on it. I chose the latter for two reasons. One I'm lazy and I didnt even have to take my wheels off. And two because I was bolting it in and not welding. The placement of the sway barin the aspire beam looks like it has more twisting action on it. I didnt think a bolted in rod would hold up and could allow some movement and thus be not as effective. Using the second set of holes looked like I was more reinforcing the main beam and the force acted on it would not depend as much on how it was mounted. More like strut bar for the torsion bar if you will. Anyways here is some pics.



I know my oil pan is leaking.

Well I know I have noticed a BIG difference. Under steering is gone and the rear body sway minimized.

P.S. I made sure the rod I got was of a decent metal and would bent slightly but also spring back.

[BP-Festiva]

ohhh im so doing this to my other festiva that isnt getting the aspire swap

[fastivaca]

Great info Scott! Do you have nuts on the inside as well or just on the outside? I think a trip to Rona is in order tomorrow!

Can you get a picture of where the front bar goes over/under the engine crossmember? Did you have any problems at the LCA's or did things line up?

Thanks for an informative write up!

[Team Lightning]

Sway Bar-Front AND Rear

What size rod did you use? It looks like it might be 5/8.
Jerry

[187festiva]

i like it! What about boxing in the u bar? I thought about doing it when i did the aspire swap i wonder if it would help

[leapin]

What size rod did you use? It looks like it might be 5/8.
Jerry

Bingo!.

Ian I was going to use nuts on the inside...in face if look reeeeeeeeal close you might even see em. Problem is that there is a small plate welded close to the hole and I couldnt sinch it up close

As for any aspire bar interference. The bar almost fit straight into the LCA's the trouble was the frame mounts. One went on straight the other not so much...i had to use a jack to "force it" into place. But I blame this on my new sway bar LCA bushings that didnt allow the movement the old ones once did and kept the bar forward about a 1/8th of an inch to far forward. But I made it work. On the front end. I had the bar just touch the lower rad hose. I just placed a buffer between the two so there is no rubbing issues. I think it also is touching the lower mount as well...but its not much if at all.

I was also thinking about boxing it. Mike and I noticed the aspire bar has the same holes. A guy(or girl) could put the bar in addition to the one already welded in as well. two bars!

[Team Lightning]

Do you remember the lenght of the rod?

[leapin]

I cut it at exactly 4 foot 1/2 inch

[Team Lightning]

Thanks, what grade did you use? grade 5 ? I"m thinking that grade 8 might not flex enough.

[deathegg]

Very neat. Where did you get the bar? Is it something from Home Depot, etc?

[leapin]

Im not sure of the grade and yes it is from the home depot!

[blkfordsedan]

Excellent!!! I always suspected there was an easy way to reinforce the factory Festiva axle beam like an Aspire. I was just never able to look at an Aspire to see what Ford actually did. I too thought about boxing the beam, but that would require removing it or welding close to the gas tank. I'm thinking a piece of heavy wall tubing cut to the exact length to fit inside the axle beam and with nuts welded inside each end for internal threads. Then, you could use a GR8 bolt on each side, bolted from the outside.

The more I think about it, using the set of holes closest to the wheels (and farthest from the axle mounting points) would be more effective at controlling sway since the total axle movement (or twist) is greater at that point, but, since it's closer to the wheel, force acting on the wheel would have less leverage on the rod. I don't think the rod would have to be as strong at that location. Think of the LH & RH control arms as levers acting on the axle beam. A piece of heavy tubing capped on each end with threaded studs welded on may also be an option. Maybe you can remove your wheels and re-install the rod in the other holes just to see what difference it makes?

Next question: Are the rear spindles bolted on to the axle beam and will the Aspire hubs bolt on to the ends of the Festiva beam? If so, you could bolt in your reinforcement bar and bolt on Aspire rear spindles/brakes and have an "Aspire swap" without having to switch the entire axle.

[Festiva_tunner]

good info here

[leapin]

Excellent!!! I always suspected there was an easy way to reinforce the factory Festiva axle beam like an Aspire. I was just never able to look at an Aspire to see what Ford actually did. I too thought about boxing the beam, but that would require removing it or welding close to the gas tank. I'm thinking a piece of heavy wall tubing cut to the exact length to fit inside the axle beam and with nuts welded inside each end for internal threads. Then, you could use a GR8 bolt on each side, bolted from the outside.

The more I think about it, using the set of holes closest to the wheels (and farthest from the axle mounting points) would be more effective at controlling sway since the total axle movement (or twist) is greater at that point, but, since it's closer to the wheel, force acting on the wheel would have less leverage on the rod. I don't think the rod would have to be as strong at that location. Think of the LH & RH control arms as levers acting on the axle beam. A piece of heavy tubing capped on each end with threaded studs welded on may also be an option. Maybe you can remove your wheels and re-install the rod in the other holes just to see what difference it makes?

Next question: Are the rear spindles bolted on to the axle beam and will the Aspire hubs bolt on to the ends of the Festiva beam? If so, you could bolt in your reinforcement bar and bolt on Aspire rear spindles/brakes and have an "Aspire swap" without having to switch the entire axle.

I was thinking of putting it in the holes closer to the wheels but I dont think it would work as well because like you said the "twist" action is name of the game in those holes...and if its not welded im not sure it would hold and the bar could spin. If you were welding it in thats another story. Mike and I were compareing the beams and the spindles are bolted on but im not sure if the mounting plate were the same. ie. bolt hol spacing.

[jimjimz]

Is the only difference between the festiva and aspire beam (just the beam) the sway bar?
cause if that being the case I can keep my bolt pattern in the rear to match my soon to be capri swap in the front, with capri wheels and all I have to do is install my own sway bar. YEAH!
now all I need from the aspire is the LCAs