Front sway bar compatibility Aspire/Festiva

[Bert]

I completed an Aspire to Festiva front sway bar swap this afternoon. Festiva bars are 7/8 inch diameter whereas the Aspire (from a 4 door auto) is slightly over 1 inch. Doesn't sound like much but visually and structurally significant. The two Aspire sway bar brackets will not bolt on to a Festy chassis so you can save a lot of time and effort by retaining the Festy brackets and merely separating the bracket covers and the rubber bushings (2 locknuts on each) and using either the Aspire bushings and covers or the Festiva parts. Only difference I could see was that Festy bushings are shorter overall but not where it matters and they readily fit on the Aspire bar. However be forewarned that the transmission crossmember will have to be undone and dropped slightly (couple of inches) at the front of the car (2 bolts into the chassis and 2 nuts from the transmission mount, and remember to support the engine while you're doing this) in order to install the Aspire sway bar so the 'kink' in the bar goes over top of the crossmember. The original Festiva sway bar does not go over the x-member. Attach the sway bar through the control arms and loosely tighten those nuts before you start fastening the sway bar to the chassis. Otherwise, trying to seat the control arm bushings after everything else is attached is much more difficult (I couldn't do it).
The Festy lower rad hose (an OEM item on an OEM rad on that car) had to be shortened by 3/4 inch at the radiator connection in order for the bend in the hose not to interfere (ie be compressed) with the Aspire sway bar.
Other than that it all went together without excessive grief. Next weekend the car will hit the pavement with an entirely Aspire-derived undercarriage and if things pan out I'll rename her Franky (as in Frankenstein) if the 175/70-13 stock Aspire wheels make the car look bizarre until such time that more compatible wheels and tires are procured.

[htchbck]

175/70R13s and aspire wheels don't look bad, I've done it before. Any pics of the sway bar and stuff?

[skimsucka]

report back if it rubs your tranny mount or makes any vibration noise pleasee i have a 4dr auto aspire sway laying in my garage

[Bert]

Should have taken photos but neglected to bring the camera. Will post pictures of two identical cars (with and without Aspire fixins) as soon as I can. Not needing to remove the 6 nuts and bolts holding the 2 sway bar brackets on to the chassis ought to be a real revelation for somebody; they are exceedingly difficult and time-consuming to remove intact from a salt-soaked chassis. Aspire and Festy covers are interchangeable.
Not wishing to tinker with the wheel alignment and seeing no pronounced difference between tie-rod ends, the swap, at the moment, has retained the Festy (Moog manuf) parts instead of switching to the Aspire ends. Perhaps someone can enlighten me as to why this part of the swap is necessary (thicker or deeper cones?)

[Bert]

report back if it rubs your tranny mount or makes any vibration noise pleasee i have a 4dr auto aspire sway laying in my garage

I don't foresee vibration problems (the sway bar appears to be free floating at the x-member) but if it does happen I will slide a piece of rubber hose around the bar, or secure a piece of rubber at the contact point.

[walth]

it will make contact / rub under load. do a search on it. it's worth having that upgrade!!!

[georgeb]

The Festiva ends have a thinner shank and will pull farther into the spindle (a washer must be used to prevent the nut from running out of threads) possibly causing the outer part of the end to contact the spindle which couldn't be good.

[Damkid]

Actually it's the taper that's different between the tie rod ends as compared to different thicknesses, but same idea lol