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I'm only writing up the fronts for now. This is more or less to outline how to do it without spending too much or compromising the safety and performance of the brake system.
First step is finding a donor. The ideal car is a 4-door automatic aspire. 2dr versus 4dr doesn't matter if you're keeping your festiva suspension. Lower mileage is always preffered, but if you're choosing between 2 high-mileage cars pick the one that's closest to, but over a major maintenance interval (60000 miles/100000km) to increase the chance of finding newer parts. This has worked for me. Stay away from wrecked cars except for brake parts and shocks.
Before you even open your toolbox, with the front end lifted and the steering column unlocked do a front end check. Grab the tire and shake it side to side at least 1 inch, and up and down. If you feel any looseness when you reverse direction then you have bad parts. Best thing is to have a buddy with you to watch where the play is.
The lower ball joints don't matter at all since you don't use the aspire lower control arm/ball joint combo in a festiva.
Tie rod ends are not entirely consequential, easy to pull off another car, and you should be pulling '90-'96 escort (gt and lx use the same part) tie rod ends. They are typically greaseable and that makes all the difference in the world. They seem to be designed a bit better too. If you have to buy new, escort tie rod ends are also much cheaper and more commonly in stock.
The main reason for the front end check though is the bearings. If they are loose, walk away from the car. Bearings themselves are cheap but unless you have access to a bearing press it's an unnecessary and somewhat steep expense to have new ones pressed in. Even if you have one it's just a pain to do on these cars (at least with the press at my shop).
So if the bearings are good, start tearing it apart. I won't delve into this much because there are a few great write-ups on that already. one thing to note though- it's very easy to get a bunch of dirt, rust and other crap into the bearings while the CV is coming out. Make sure you clean the back of the spindle and the strut a bit before you pull that. And when you pull the brake line off, keep the banjo bolt and washer.
Even if you don't want the sway bar, grab the bushings. they're probably in better shape than yours.
Leave the brakes intact on the spindles for now. Most junkyards will charge you less if it's all together. Look for leaks around the caliper (great thing aout the mazda caliper design is that you can see the piston with the caliper still in place) and check the rotor for cracking. If you see any of this, take it apart and swap the rotors or calipers with another aspire (escort calipers work as well, and again gt/lx doesn't matter).
Best choice for wheels and tires is a set of 14s off a MkII Jetta/Golf, but you need to use the volkswagen lug bolts as they use a ball-shaped lug rather than the 45 degree cone-seat the rest of the known universe uses. 14s on one of these cars will invariably be 175/65, 185/60 or 195/60 which are pretty good sizes for the average festiva, and even the steelies look good. the styling also tends better than most to a festy. The hubs are also very close in size so it's better than say a honda wheel for hub centricity.
Once you get it all home, it's time to rip the brakes apart. Check the caliper again more thoroughly for leaks. If there is a small leak there are caliper kits available and they're not that hard to rebuild if you know how. If it's good, clean it up with a wire brush and push the piston back in. have a rag and a bucket handy when you do. I recommend caliper paint, makes it look like new (or better) and last longer. Pull the sliders apart, clean them extremely well and lube them up. Permatex makes single-use packets of caliper lube that are perfect for this if you don't already have a whole tube of it. They're usually on display at the counter of the parts store and they go for about a buck.
Take the rotors to a reputable shop that does brakes and have them turned/resurfaced. Gives you like-new rotors for roughly half the price. There is a small chance they'll be too thin to turn, in which case they should tell you before they start the brake lathe. You just return them to the JY, exchange them and try again.
So, if you follow these directions and all your donor parts are reuseable, you will end up paying less than half of what you would just going ape droppings and buying all new parts, and still have all the benefits of the swap. I know a lot of people don't even think twice about replacing everything but the spindle, and then gripe about how much it all costs. But you have to remember that when you take your old parts back to get your core credit it's all going to get rebuilt the same way you could have in the first place.
First step is finding a donor. The ideal car is a 4-door automatic aspire. 2dr versus 4dr doesn't matter if you're keeping your festiva suspension. Lower mileage is always preffered, but if you're choosing between 2 high-mileage cars pick the one that's closest to, but over a major maintenance interval (60000 miles/100000km) to increase the chance of finding newer parts. This has worked for me. Stay away from wrecked cars except for brake parts and shocks.
Before you even open your toolbox, with the front end lifted and the steering column unlocked do a front end check. Grab the tire and shake it side to side at least 1 inch, and up and down. If you feel any looseness when you reverse direction then you have bad parts. Best thing is to have a buddy with you to watch where the play is.
The lower ball joints don't matter at all since you don't use the aspire lower control arm/ball joint combo in a festiva.
Tie rod ends are not entirely consequential, easy to pull off another car, and you should be pulling '90-'96 escort (gt and lx use the same part) tie rod ends. They are typically greaseable and that makes all the difference in the world. They seem to be designed a bit better too. If you have to buy new, escort tie rod ends are also much cheaper and more commonly in stock.
The main reason for the front end check though is the bearings. If they are loose, walk away from the car. Bearings themselves are cheap but unless you have access to a bearing press it's an unnecessary and somewhat steep expense to have new ones pressed in. Even if you have one it's just a pain to do on these cars (at least with the press at my shop).
So if the bearings are good, start tearing it apart. I won't delve into this much because there are a few great write-ups on that already. one thing to note though- it's very easy to get a bunch of dirt, rust and other crap into the bearings while the CV is coming out. Make sure you clean the back of the spindle and the strut a bit before you pull that. And when you pull the brake line off, keep the banjo bolt and washer.
Even if you don't want the sway bar, grab the bushings. they're probably in better shape than yours.
Leave the brakes intact on the spindles for now. Most junkyards will charge you less if it's all together. Look for leaks around the caliper (great thing aout the mazda caliper design is that you can see the piston with the caliper still in place) and check the rotor for cracking. If you see any of this, take it apart and swap the rotors or calipers with another aspire (escort calipers work as well, and again gt/lx doesn't matter).
Best choice for wheels and tires is a set of 14s off a MkII Jetta/Golf, but you need to use the volkswagen lug bolts as they use a ball-shaped lug rather than the 45 degree cone-seat the rest of the known universe uses. 14s on one of these cars will invariably be 175/65, 185/60 or 195/60 which are pretty good sizes for the average festiva, and even the steelies look good. the styling also tends better than most to a festy. The hubs are also very close in size so it's better than say a honda wheel for hub centricity.
Once you get it all home, it's time to rip the brakes apart. Check the caliper again more thoroughly for leaks. If there is a small leak there are caliper kits available and they're not that hard to rebuild if you know how. If it's good, clean it up with a wire brush and push the piston back in. have a rag and a bucket handy when you do. I recommend caliper paint, makes it look like new (or better) and last longer. Pull the sliders apart, clean them extremely well and lube them up. Permatex makes single-use packets of caliper lube that are perfect for this if you don't already have a whole tube of it. They're usually on display at the counter of the parts store and they go for about a buck.
Take the rotors to a reputable shop that does brakes and have them turned/resurfaced. Gives you like-new rotors for roughly half the price. There is a small chance they'll be too thin to turn, in which case they should tell you before they start the brake lathe. You just return them to the JY, exchange them and try again.
So, if you follow these directions and all your donor parts are reuseable, you will end up paying less than half of what you would just going ape droppings and buying all new parts, and still have all the benefits of the swap. I know a lot of people don't even think twice about replacing everything but the spindle, and then gripe about how much it all costs. But you have to remember that when you take your old parts back to get your core credit it's all going to get rebuilt the same way you could have in the first place.
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