aspire sway bar on a festiva

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I've stripped the whole front end from an aspire and off my Festiva, tried putting the bar in upside down but I would need to notch a good bit of the crossmember to do that, so then I flipped it and stuck it in the right way running over the crossmember. Now its hitting the front transmission mount and in turn pressing down on the crossmember, and slightly touching the lower radiator hose. I've got a different hose or it would probably be kinking it.

How did others overcome this? I've searched a bit but its mostly people saying they ran into similar issues, haven't read about a fix yet.

[Festy46]

I cut a piece off the motor mount to make it look like a fat letter "D" for clearance. I welded a plate across the mount on the flat part of the "D" so the rubber was still completely enclosed. I welded a little bit at a time so I didn't burn the rubber. For the radiator hose, I cut a piece off the end so it would fit up higher.

[zoom zoom]

Hah! That sounds like one way to do it, I'm not sure if I want to try it yet, any other suggestions?

[shadetree]

I have put them on a couple times and took them back off ! Do yourself a favor and lay the aspire on top the festy bar and look how far it is going to push your wheels back and cause other problems !

[zoe60]

I couldn't get it to work right in my '89. No way it would clear the transmission mount and I didn't want to modify it so I decided original is good enough. I love the rest of the Aspire swap though. If it directly bolted in with no interference I would try it again. The one I had came from a four door automatic. I wonder if manual tx cars have a different sway bar?

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Rob, I did lay one on top of the other, I didn't notice it moving anything back further, but I did notice the ends were further apart. I was thinking about swapping aspire lcas, tie rods, and axles. With my wheels having that insane offset I figured a thicker sway bar wouldn't flex forward and backward as much, maybe a quick fix for a little bit of the torque steer I've been getting, plus aspire axles are thicker so maybe they won't want to bend. I don't know what's going on with the driver side but it vibrates like crazy. It doesn't click but you can tell its the axle going nuts. I can pull the inner tripot bearing out of the cv cup and stick it back in.(boot still attached in good shape, there's a snap ring that's supposed to prevent that) when I'm cruising at 55/60 I can let off the gas and the car will jerk, hit the gas and it jerks again..and its not power from wot or anything just feathering the gas.

I don't really know, might break out a bfh and see what I can do about installing it upside down again...but if your right about it giving negative caster then its just out of the question altogether. :/

[shadetree]

Aspire bar is the same your correct ! I ment the front mounts ! Look at them really close the aspire mount has the bushing closer to the engine about 3/4 of an inch .

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Alright ill check into an aspire front mount, I've got one or two laying around to compare. If its as easy as drilling holes in the crossmember that's not really a problem.

[shadetree]

I can't remember for positive on this ! I'm still thinking that bar is a little longer because the mount positions are different . I know I put two of them on and it pushed both wheels back ! I did take aspire brackets and bolt them on ironstiva to get it correct !

[scitzz]

I have one flipped upside down on my 93, and I know Kartracer did one the same way on Lucky, which Smedley now owns. It was a beast to get them in, but didn't take any notching on the cross member. Both have stock cross members.

[Bert]

I have an Aspire bar on right side up. Had to trim the lower rad hose about 1/2 inch and did bed the bar on a piece of rubber where it touches the crossmember but other than that nothing unusual. I re-used the Festy rad support brackets, and retained Festy LCAs. I don't have any complaints.

[bravekozak]

I have the slightest lean on my rad. I am using one Festiva top rad mount and one Aspire top rad mount. Problem solved.

[Bert]

I have the slightest lean on my rad. I am using one Festiva top rad mount and one Aspire top rad mount. Problem solved.

Novel solution that I would never have thought of. You must have done something at the bottom of the rad as well, as in shims or spacers over the supports.

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Bert, your front transmission mount isn't interfering? Mine isn't touching the crossmember, it just hits the tranny mount. I wonder what is going on causing all the conflicting issues with different cars? Should all be the same stock crossmembers and sway bars. Mines from a MT aspire.

[Team Lightning]

Manual transmission sway bars for an Aspire are smaller diameter than the Automatic sway bars,