Aspire swap

[navdoc101]

Drove up to Brooksville, 1 1/2 hour drive, to pull the suspension from a '95 Aspire with 78000 mi. on it . Guy told us on the phone that it ran & everything worked , wanted $150. pluse a headunit we have with a 7" monitor, Cd, MP3, etc. Got there & it looked good until I looked under it. Front suspension looked great, rear looked like it had been in a swamp. Only thing that would have been usable was the swing arm(with a lot of cleaning) & the e-brake cable. Everything else was carroded, would need air tools to remove from car. I didn't get it.

[sketchman]

I'm thinking the thing to do now is a Rio front conversion with a stock rear. Rockauto lists the stock rear drum(and of course that includes the whole rotating brake assembly really) at 8lbs. VERY light, and the fronts do most of the braking anyway. Oh, and that's vs. 11.5lbs for the Aspire units. Add a set of dual pattern "light" 14s, and it should be pretty nice.

That's my eventual plan, anyway.

[navdoc101]

The rear swing arm beam is a major part of the swap. It is stiffer ;built in swaybar; than the Festy one.

[sketchman]

I just noticed something that maybe is common knowledge. IDK, but the 92-00 ATX Civic rear drums are the same inner diameter as the Aspire units. You could (with some fiddling I'm sure) switch to the Honda "isolated?" bearing and hub and drop on drum to get the same convenient brake job for the rear as you get on the fronts with a Aspire/Rio swap. The stock rear wheel bearings are annoying, so I might look into that too.

[sketchman]

Also something else to note. The MTX Civic drums are even lighter than the ATX. 7.5lbs vs 9lbs. They are smaller, but still larger than the stock Festiva units. Might be able to make them work with the Festiva rear end and just Civic shoes, drums, and hubs?