Tweet
Here are some more measurements getting closer to seeing exactly how hard it's going to be to swap the IRS. Obviously it's going to require a lot of fabrication, but I wan't really sure how much until tonight.
This is the measurement from the face where the wheel bolts up to the outside face the trailing arm. This is important because if this were off by too much either the trailing arm would not be parallel to the centerline of the car (which would do funny things with the alignment as the suspension compressed) OR that the stock mounting points would not be usable (meaning more fabrication).
On the stock Festiva suspension that measuments is approximately 5.25"
This is the same measurement on the EGT suspesion. The EGT trailing arm is narrower than the Festiva, so the stock Festiva mounting bracket has some room to play with.
It's close enough that it will work fine.
The EGT trailing arm is about 9 inches too long. It can be sectioned easily enough. Or a pair could easily be fabricated to use spherical rod end / be adjustable if you really wanted to tweak the geometry.
This is the EGT rear crossmember with sway bar.
This is the EGT crossmember with 1 transverse link stuck on for reference. As you can see the crossmember is almost as wide as the entire Festy rear axle. Either the crossmember is going to have to be narrowed or the transverse links are going to have to be shortened. Or both. I need to make some CAD models and play with the geometry and see what's going to work best. Neither option is too bad, the transverse links should be made adjustable anyway, narrowing won't be any added work.
I also measure the difference in height from the center of the wheel to the top the fully extended strut. I didn't get any pictures, but the difference is that the EGT is about 1" longer than the Festiva and a little less damper travel. Not necessarily bad, the upper mount could be designed to restore some of that distance.
The big question is still whether the EGT rear struts will have the right angle when stuck in the Festiva towers. It's a big if.
So right now it looks like it going to require fabrication/modification of:
6 links
Festiva trailing arm mounting brackets
Upper shock mount
Crossmember/builing sub-frame
Removing spare tire well/filling hole in floor
Reinforcing shock towers/bracing
Mounting crossmember
Rerouting exhaust
Coil-over sleeves
Sway bar.
I'm probably overlooking something.
This is the measurement from the face where the wheel bolts up to the outside face the trailing arm. This is important because if this were off by too much either the trailing arm would not be parallel to the centerline of the car (which would do funny things with the alignment as the suspension compressed) OR that the stock mounting points would not be usable (meaning more fabrication).
On the stock Festiva suspension that measuments is approximately 5.25"
This is the same measurement on the EGT suspesion. The EGT trailing arm is narrower than the Festiva, so the stock Festiva mounting bracket has some room to play with.
It's close enough that it will work fine.
The EGT trailing arm is about 9 inches too long. It can be sectioned easily enough. Or a pair could easily be fabricated to use spherical rod end / be adjustable if you really wanted to tweak the geometry.
This is the EGT rear crossmember with sway bar.
This is the EGT crossmember with 1 transverse link stuck on for reference. As you can see the crossmember is almost as wide as the entire Festy rear axle. Either the crossmember is going to have to be narrowed or the transverse links are going to have to be shortened. Or both. I need to make some CAD models and play with the geometry and see what's going to work best. Neither option is too bad, the transverse links should be made adjustable anyway, narrowing won't be any added work.
I also measure the difference in height from the center of the wheel to the top the fully extended strut. I didn't get any pictures, but the difference is that the EGT is about 1" longer than the Festiva and a little less damper travel. Not necessarily bad, the upper mount could be designed to restore some of that distance.
The big question is still whether the EGT rear struts will have the right angle when stuck in the Festiva towers. It's a big if.
So right now it looks like it going to require fabrication/modification of:
6 links
Festiva trailing arm mounting brackets
Upper shock mount
Crossmember/builing sub-frame
Removing spare tire well/filling hole in floor
Reinforcing shock towers/bracing
Mounting crossmember
Rerouting exhaust
Coil-over sleeves
Sway bar.
I'm probably overlooking something.
It's a good thing you don't read the stickies, you might of learned something.
Poverty produces creativity
Comment