Walth's 1991 Festy

[walth]

Previous FS listing: http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=27927

Hey everyone, just got back last night from 9 hours of driving to pick up my new to me 1991 Festiva L. Thanks again to Skeeter for leaving straight from work and driving with me up to PA.

Jason told me about the parking brake having issues. Today I quickly got to it and blocked the front tires, put the rear on jack stands, took off the wheels. The right side hub moves very freely and is just right. There is no clever pin connecting the cable to the bracket but I'll fix that soon. The left side is a different story. It is complete but it's got some internal issues. And the bracket on the cross member is broke off and hanging slightly free. Oh, and the left rear assy only has ONE spring and the two pins and cups. that's it...and that's probably why it feels locked up? I went and bought new shoes and the spring kit, i.e. bag o' bolts.

here are some pics of my adventures so far:





later I will addres the rust issues...somehow. I saw Stefan's thread and a few other threads but I dont have the tools to do half of that. maybe someday tho

[batstiva]

A little crusty, but nowhere near the worst I've ever seen. Think you'll be happy with it, once you get the kinks ironed out. Keep us posted on her progress.

[Zanzer]

Looks like the perfect candidate for an Aspire swap to me :mrgreen:

[freshtiva]

Egads !!

[lanemeyer14]

Congrats on the score! If you've got Nate to help then you're in good hands

[walth]

extremely good hands. that's almost an understatement!

and as far as the aspire swap...the only thing I think I would do is the master. The drums are bigger but not by much. I was impressed with the master swap. And Nate's brakes were very solid after we got his cylinder housing changed out and bled.

I helped him change his rear left cylinder and hard line last week. sure has helped me with getting this apart and looking at it. I think I have to change out this cylinder too. The left boot is leaking between the boot and housing when I push in on the piston. Figured it couldn't hurt too bad to push in on the piston if the brakes do the other 30k miles.

oh and as you can tell it is very crusty...and rusty. I bought two cans of brake cleaner and it cleaned up a lot. I also knocked out a good bit of the loose stuff. But it does kind of concern me. I wonder how much longer it will last. I dont want it to break in half and lose my back tire. And the autoadjuster is missing the left nub that locks into the left shoe...don't know what all that will affect by it being missing.

[walth]

so can I replace just the boots for 2 bucks? or do I HAVE to replace the entire cylinder (16 bucks or so) and probably the hard line as well (since they always round off)?

these are the boots at autozone: http://www.autozone.com/autozone/cat...&parentId=44-0

cylinder: http://www.autozone.com/autozone/cat...&parentId=44-0

[walth]

so I talked with nate, told him how I pushed on the piston. Guess it was "leaking" cuz I was pushing on it while it was full. haha. So I removed the left piston fully, shot some brake parts cleaner in there and cleaned the piston too and put it back in. Isn't leaking now and started putting everything together. I stopped since I couldn't see. I'd like to get it together tonight but I'll do that tomorrow. I am going to go get some bearing grease tonight so I have that out of the way.

[skeeters_keeper]

Looks like we have another Festy convert, folks... that makes three that I've made in Lynchburg :p

[walth]

haha, yeah, thanks nate.

so today I tore the driver rear drum off again and swapped my old broke self-adjuster with an aspire adjuster. The only difference that i could tell is the arm that attaches to the cable is about 1/4" longer and has more room in the "U" area. Then I did the pass. rear brakes and worked the self-adjuster loose and put it back. thankfully that one wasn't broke too. And I greased up the cable under the long boot. I also fixed the back up light switch as I didn't have any reverse lights. I stripped the broken wire and put a connector on and crimped it and now I have reverse lights.

Then I went and transferred the title, got a new tire put on, and then inspection. Now I just need to bleed the brakes and I think everything will be set to go.

[freshtiva]

Good progress, keep up the great work ! You really miss that backup light when its not working. Seems a minor thing untill you dont have one. Glad to see the festiva has an owner who treats it right.

[walth]

thanks. I'm usually not the best maintenance guy but I'm taking notes from Nate.

And as far as the reverse lights go, I'd rather be missing those right now than my brakes. In order to get my inspection today I had to drive practically with no brakes to get a tire swapped and then even further from the house to get the inspection. I got home safely and then tonight I drove out to see Nate and bled 3 of the brakes. I noticed the pass front bleeder is broke off pretty flush. He was mentioning how it wasn't leaking (and how lucky I am)...nonetheless I am driving down to Raleigh tomorrow for Dean. a couple of pumps on the brake and I can stop...somewhat. I still have engine braking and the e-brake that I fixed as well.

[kartracer46]

Congrats on the car. I am originally from PA so I know exactly what you are going through. Hope you get it all ready. I will see you and your ride tomorrow in NC.

[walth]

are you the guy meeting up with us? are you sure you don't want to just take 85 down to raleigh and durham? it's much quicker....

[kartracer46]

Yeah, I think I am going to go ahead down 85. I was just waiting for Nate to call.