What is the difference between a Festy 5-spd & an Aspire one?

[Larry Hampton]

Reason I ask, if you swap an Aspire trans and knuckles to go to 13" tires, does your speedo read right?

[FestYboy]

speedo reads the same for all E series trans. the aspire has a shorter final drive ONLY, all other gear ratios are the same.

[Larry Hampton]

Pardon me for getting this possibly mixed up, are you saying that 5th is lower numerically on the Aspire that the Festy? Like .76:1 vs .82:1

It would seem to me that if the Aspire tires are taller, then the speedo would be off. In otherwords, maybe the speedo itself is different.

[kellen302]

final drive is the ring/pinion ratio, so all gears are lowered a bit

[FestYboy]

^ correct.

[Hot_Wheels]

is the mounting and hook ups the same as a festi trains? I thoguht some mods where needed when installing a aspire trans into a festi?

[FestYboy]

you need the chassis specific mounts for the trans swap (festy mounts for a festy swap, aspire mounts for an aspire swap).

[shadetree]

Installing the aspire trans the only dif other then final drive , is the front trans mount . It will not work on the festy crossmember . I'm told u can swap the aspire crossmember to the festy but I've never done this . I'm thinking kartracer did the crossmember switch !!!!!
The festy mount will work on an aspire trans but holes need drilled ,that's what I'm running now ..

[Occhty]

As stated above, the only issue putting and aspire trans into a festy is the front mount.
I always just use the festy mount, it will work fine. Just there's one bolt hole that's left out. You'll see it when you try it.
I can get a pic if needed.

[Occhty]

Maybe that's a mistake, anywho, go here and see

http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40587&page=2

[iceracerdude]

Pardon me for getting this possibly mixed up, are you saying that 5th is lower numerically on the Aspire that the Festy? Like .76:1 vs .82:1

It would seem to me that if the Aspire tires are taller, then the speedo would be off. In otherwords, maybe the speedo itself is different.

To make it easier for you to picture the "final drive" portion of the transmission concept, visualize a motorcycle's chain and sprocket assembly together.
You know the motorcycle has a transmission with 5 or 6 gears right, but the size of those 2 sprockets and ultimately that chain on the outide of the tranmission, can be made smaller or larger (more or less teeth) both front and/or back ultimately affecting all of the relatively unchanging gears.
This is how and why they compensated for the aspire weighing an additional 200 pounds.
The final drive ratio was 3.77 to 1 in the festy which they achieved by mating a 18 tooth pinion gear (also refered to as a "sun" gear) with a 68 tooth ring gear.
The ratio is 4.05 to 1 however in the aspire which they achieved by mating a 17 tooth pinon gear to a 69 tooth ring gear.

Here's an inside the trans picture for you, that massive gear that seems to fit snugly under that gear shaft cluster is the ring gear we're speaking of:


Remember this too Larry, in the future you don't have to overthink things like this, that's what you have guys like us for ;-)

[zoom zoom]

Ok so how different is the 02 rio ring gear from the g series?

[Safety Guy]

The speedo gear that you insert into the transaxle hole runs off the ring gear, right?

Karl

[iceracerdude]

I've gotta believe because it's a g, it's much bigger in general mass, tooth count at that point might be moot. What you want to do is see how big that flywheel is. The mounting bolt pattern and the clutch bolt pattern. Did you get a manual type flywheel with that tranny?

[iceracerdude]

The speedo gear that you insert into the transaxle hole runs off the ring gear, right?

Karl

Well. off the diff carrier, A little plastic gear attached to the the other end of the diff carrier.
Look here just above that pill bottle balancing the whole schebang:



Take a closer look at the teeth on that ring gear, see the double row of hash marks on every tooth? That's not found on the festy ring gear, this is a factory made indicator that you're holding a 69 tooth gear instead of the 68 found in the festy. This diff carrier as well as all other internals including forks, and gear clusters are completley interchangable between both e series cases.