Aspire rear swap, (long brake pedal stroke)

[niklid05]

I just finished swapping the aspire rear into my car(no front yet), we bled the brakes blah blah. Anyways when I am braking, the brake pedal comes even with the gas pedal, before i start slowing up. Is this typical with aspire brake swaps? Im assuming its gonna end up being the same way with the fronts when I do that. Should I get the aspire mc and booster to get back the old brake pedal travel?

thanks.


Btw with just the rear in the car the handling is much better than the old festiva rear beam.

[stefan]

thats certainly not normal. did you take the drums off on the aspire axle? perhaps you have a blown wheel cylander

[Sleeper]

Funny thing is my brakes became "soft" after my aspire brake swap.....everything was intalled proper and by a certified brake machnic.....but it still sucked the whole time I drove that car.....it really stunk doing all of that work and getting nothing out of it......But now i'm on to a better festy so I don't have to figure that out......I still can't figure that out....it had no air in the system and we checked and rechecked everything......I've found in other car/trucks that when the brakes get realy soft and the is no problem with air in the system or a popped line ect....that is can be a master cly.....I never tryed that...

[skeeters_keeper]

mines softer than w/ the stock breaks but by the time i get down to level with the gass pedal its just about all locked up lol.

i'm still not as happy w/ the swap as i was expecting to be, i do stop better but not as big of a difference as i expected... of course my crappy tires don't help and even w/ the crappy tires it was worth it, something is wrong w/ your MC or pads or brake adjuster (quite possible) or something!

[GenevaDirt]

^^man....even if it did not stop better...you gotta love the ease of replacing the bearings and then being able to find nice rims and tires. As soon as I can I will be swapping mine....lol!

[stefan]

^--- ah yes, thats a possibility too, your mechanical adjustors could be al seized/rusted up. pull them out and lube em up good.

I just put on my rear axle and i noticed no difference in pedal travel after a good bleeding

[oxbrain]

The aspire MC is larger than in the festiva. To move as much fluid you have to push the pedal further, which gives a soft feel. The easy fix to this is swapping in the aspire MC.

Going down to the gas pedal seems wrong though, I'd double check that you don't have air in the line, and that a hose isn't expanding.

[Damkid]

right before i did my aspire swap my brake pedal was basically hitting the floor, i was thinking maybe the rear brakes were worn so bad that was my problem cause i knew i didn't have any leaks, so i started the swap with changing the rear with all new everything, no difference what so ever, and i knew there were no leaks or air in the system, so i had the shop i go to finish the swap on the front with all new everything as well and also put on a new (used but new to me) festiva master cylinder after that the brake pedal was right at the top and everything works amazing

so long story short if the pedal goes down that far with no leaks or air, i would say put on a new MC (the festiva one will do just fine) and that should fix the problem

[niklid05]

Let me start by saying I can be extremly lazy. now read on lol.


I didnt have the problem three days ago. It would grab just like any normal car would, about 1/2inch or so from the top. Maybe ill try bleeding the brakes again tomorrow. Im almost positive we got all the air out. We bled them and after we had no air we did it 2-3 more times, with pure fluid coming out....no air. I dunno.


I will add though, that the one line, the soft line in the middle; neither end is connected in the bracket with the retaining clip.......You wouldnt think that would cause the problem would you? For some stupid reason I couldnt get it to connect in the bracket without kinking the crap out of the soft line. I plan on finding another soft line to fix it. But you wouldnt think that the soft line, not being held tight in the bracket, would cause it to taking up that much pedal travel????

More food for thought () I didnt check to see if the shoes or drums are worn. That might be a problem too, like mentioned.


Once I sort this crap out, is putting the aspire booster and mc on gonna be make an improvement overall in pedal feel and effort? If so is it a direct swap or am I gonna have to tear my dash out and start drilling holes?

[Damkid]

as far as i know the aspire MC is a direct bolt on but you'd have to move the one line around, but like i had said the festiva one will work well with the swap, and you wouldn't have to worry and messing with anything to make it work

[kzbill]

I used the festiva MC with an aspire booster, the pushrod setting is different between the two the aspire is 0.00" the Festy is something like 1/16" please check the manual for both before setting. The brake pistons are bigger on frt and rear.
I have the swap on frt and rr and it is a Major improvement.

[Festiva_tunner]

look for any "wet" spots on the wheels, that would indicate a blown wheel cylinder, also take a peak at your brake lines, you may have a small pin leak, again look for fresh "wet spots" also verify that your cap is on your tank tight, make sure your fluid is to the proper level 1/4" from the top, if the problem persists you may need to bleed the air out of the master cylinder, just crack the lines like you would bleed normally VERY IMPORTANT! when bleeding a master cylinder keep an eye on fluid level you will have a greater lost of fluid due to the lack of line to travel through, if the fluid drops too low you will start sucking air into the system.

If all bleeding doesnt help than verify your booster is working properly . . . pump the brake up keep your foot on the petal and start the car . . . foot should drop slightly then retern to firmness

Hope that helps