Front brake swap for a festi... aspire?

[MonkeyGein]

i have a front bearing out on my festi so i was thinking about just doing a brake swap? what can i swap with? am i limited to the aspire? can i still use my 12s on those? what do i need off the aspire?

[91blufestiva]

Go find an aspire in a junkyard, grab the tie rod ends, and the main hub that holds the rotor and the caliper on, grab both those. You can go and put brand new rotors, calipers and tie rod ends, but make sure you still grab the calipers, to use them as cores. While you're in there, might as well grab the sway bar from the aspire too, better handling, grab the front bushings for them as well. Then if you want to swap the back (recommended) grab the whole rear axle beam, and grab the E-brake cable if it's in good shape. And you can't use the 12's, the bolt patter will then be 4x100 instead of the factory 4x114.3. So grab the aspire rims and put some 155/80/13 tires on them. Or search "aspire swap" ...

[hofficergrover]

You can do the carpi brakes and still use 12in tires but will need the aspire ball join lower control arm and the hub and caliper and break hoses off the carpi and i think the aspire outer tie rod or a escort gt one. And i think that is it but not for sure so any one else chime in and correct me if i am wrong or add the what needs.

[91blufestiva]

^ with the capri swap, you have to use 14" wheels, to fit over the calipers.

[hofficergrover]

Ooooo did not know that. Good to know^^^thanks

[htchbck]

Yep, with any of the brake swaps you have to change to bigger wheels, regardless of the bolt pattern because the 12"s won't clear.

[MonkeyGein]

i thought the bolt pattens were the same...
i'm just going to replace the bearing. i just got a set of nice tires from a local festi part monger lol.

thanks for the quick info though

[Aaronbrook37]

Go find an aspire in a junkyard, grab the tie rod ends, and the main hub that holds the rotor and the caliper on, grab both those. You can go and put brand new rotors, calipers and tie rod ends, but make sure you still grab the calipers, to use them as cores. While you're in there, might as well grab the sway bar from the aspire too, better handling, grab the front bushings for them as well. Then if you want to swap the back (recommended) grab the whole rear axle beam, and grab the E-brake cable if it's in good shape. And you can't use the 12's, the bolt patter will then be 4x100 instead of the factory 4x114.3. So grab the aspire rims and put some 155/80/13 tires on them. Or search "aspire swap" ...

This is accurate. For the best braking system you can get without performance/aftermarket components, Escort GT calipers and MC could be added to this upgrade as per their respective how-to's. Pads are the same as the Aspire.

[Bert]

I recently did the Aspire swap and initially made the mistake of using the Aspire lower control arms. They move the front wheels out too far which thoroughly messes up the caster/camber and reduces the tread count left on the tie rods (about 1/2 inch less each side). Stick with Festy LCAs (which also happen to be cheaper) but make darn sure you use Aspire tie rods. There again they may 'look the same' as Festys but aren't; seat taper is different.
It's spectacular to discover how many tire and rim combinations there are for 4x100 bolt pattern 2 1/8" hub and you will never regret having superior handling and brakes. Also you will not miss have to run wheelbarrow tires either.