Project DD(minor stuff)

[dueces]

Well guys, I bought a parts car and drove it an hour to get her home, in which I thought I was going to die the entire time.... I test drove the car and went up to 45mph and it all seemed good, but when I got it on the highway it was a totally different situation! The entire car was shaking like crazy! Oh well, she made it home Wednesday night so I parked her in the garage and went to bed. My reasoning for getting this car is because of parts that are broken on mine, and my auto gets crap gas mileage for a festy.

So, long story less long, last night I finished up getting her all torn down.

I am planning on doing a 5sp swap, and I already fixed my broken drivers window handle(broke at 4am on my way to work-burrr). Well on to some pics of the teardown.

I am not a big fan of taking out just the motor or just the tranny, so I pulled the whole thing, which works out because I am sure I will just sell the motor.







So while trying to get the tranny mounts disconnected, I found out why the car was shaking so bad on the way home:




So after I got the motor out Thursday night(took about three hours), I continued yesterday after work and pretty much removed everything on the inside besides the back seat and the drivers seat.




And after reading the how to on the auto to manual swap, I decided it would be easier to just remove the whole pedal assembly instead of trying to rig everything up in my car




So there it is for now, Today my plan is to get the rear brakes done on my DD, the white festy, as well as get the pedals swapped over.

I ordered both tranny mounts and a passenger side axle from rockauto, and they are on the way, so maybe around this time next week I will have a manual tranny in my DD!

Thanks for looking, and sorry for the long read. Also I will be posting up some of the extra stuff for sale today.

John

[Ford Fester]

Holy progress!!! Nice work man.

[Movin]

Umm, "minor stuff" say...
Let me know where the
"average joe" and the
"PRO" stuff go...
Good work so far! You
guys with rust amaze me!!

[dueces]

Ha Ha, Well I consider it Minor, when you do things like rwd v8 probes, a festy motor aint nothin, ha ha.

So Yesterday I replaced the rear shoes, and today I replaced the proportioning valve after I cross threaded one of the ports. I am such a moron. Got them bled, got good(festy good) brakes again!

So I have a question for all you aspire swap guys, is it really worth it? Seems like upgrading the brakes is night and day from what I am reading on here!

Thanks for the responses

John

[Festiva_Fred]

Ha Ha, Well I consider it Minor, when you do things like rwd v8 probes, a festy motor aint nothin, ha ha.

So Yesterday I replaced the rear shoes, and today I replaced the proportioning valve after I cross threaded one of the ports. I am such a moron. Got them bled, got good(festy good) brakes again!

So I have a question for all you aspire swap guys, is it really worth it? Seems like upgrading the brakes is night and day from what I am reading on here!

Thanks for the responses

John

Aspire swap is definitely worth it! You'll love it if you do it!

[DriverOne]

Cuts your stop distance by probably 40%, no joke. Buy premium pads and you'll smash your face on the windshield.

[91mcnasty]

Another one here that loves the aspire swap!!!!

[dueces]

Ha ha, Sweet! Aspires and Festivas are hard to come by around here, there is one that I found but the rust on the components was so bad I just walked away!

[dueces]

Well today i plan to get the swap done, got new tranny mounts, new passenger side axle, and my new clutch is waiting for me. i am working from 2am to 230pm today, so i might not be able to do it in just one night, cause i will be seriously tired, lol

[skimsucka]

way to go thats what i do charge it gets so much done! keep it up

[dueces]

Ok guys, I failed miserably, ha ha. I didn't get that far on Saturday due to running into some complications.

I got the motor out fine, the main issues are the shift linkages are in horrible shape, and the front tranny mount bracket is junk, so I am currently looking for one.

Like I said, motor came out easy





then I went to work on the pedals.



this is the three pedals installed



Also got the new gauge cluster put in, it's got 10K more miles than the car really has, but it has the tach integrated so it's worth it.

Old one coming out(didn't take pic yet of new one in)


I also soldiered the two wires together for the neutral safety switch, for the time being(as this motor trans combo will only be in the car for so long...)


Then today I got some more work done to it, after working another wonderful 12 hour day....

Didn't take any pics, but I put the steering rack back in, connected all necessary harnesses, and put the flywheel, clutch and tranny on the motor. I did buy a new clutch so it will need a break in period, so no 6000rpm launches, yet, ha ha.

That's it for now, I'll have more updates come the weekend as I think I might have a bracket pretty locally, other wise I might just make one.

Thanks for looking

John

[avitsef]

Watchin your progress ... keep going , looking good !

[dueces]

Well I have a small update, last night I put the motor and tranny back in place. Had some issues with the crossmember not matching up with my bolt holes on the car, but other than that she went in pretty good. I am going to reattach everything to day and hopefully have her running!

John

[avitsef]

Glad to hear that your getting this done ! Hope all the little stuff falls into place and your glitches are over .

[dueces]

Thanks man, She Fired right up! Affffter i charged the battery, and replaced the battery terminals, which were just destroyed. I also replaced the driverside control arm, passenger side looked good so I didn't change it, and I got the short shifter put in with my knob that I made for myself. The shifter housing is being held in place with one large bolt/nut combo, I need to get another one on there, but it's good for now

As for driving, the car shifts real good, tach and speedo both work(surprisingly), and I think I have wheel bearings going out, because when I turn I hear some metal on metal grinding....

I will post up some pics of random stuff when I can, probably tonight.

John