Bought 90 Festiva, new to forum

[Whiterjj]

Any threads a new 90 festiva owner should take a look at? I am concerned about wheel bearings and steering joints initially. Thanks

[FestYboy]

check the forums for stickies, that's where we keep our most pertinant information.

[blueoval]

welcome and enjoy your fun little car

[kumalaba]

post pics as you do mods! welcome to the site

[sc72]

Welcome to the site, enjoy that great little car.

[TorqueEffect]

Welcome!

Front wheel bearings can be an issue, not the easiest thing to do since the bearings, and rotors require a press.

Now Rear bearings are easy as pie, just word of caution, the passenger side spindle nut on the rear is reverse threaded. So to remove the nut you spin it clockwise.

[Whiterjj]

Apparently the previous owner was not aware of left threads on passenger side. Right Rear wheel bearing was the last wheel I got to to check and repack bearings. The spindle nut was literally held on by one thread and the backing washer with the tab was drove on over the threads (the tab). I am in the process of finding another spindle. I have found the nuts, washers, bearings and seals locally but no spindle yet. Fortunately I have 6 members of fire department with first generation Festivas. Any other vehicles that use the same RR spindle? Thanks TorqueEffect

[TorqueEffect]

Yeah, a spindle will be a junkyard part, and as far as I know you can't use one from any other car, only Festiva. But what you can do is get a drivers side spindle if you can't find a passenger side one, then just get a castle nut and drill a hole in the spindle for a cotter-pin.

When I first bought my Festiva last year, the rear passenger bearing was shot, and since the previous owner kept driving on that bad outer bearing until it was in pieces, it chewed the spindle all to hell.
So I went through all this, I actually had to find a second spindle because (Excuse my brother's stupidity) put the outer bearing in backwards, and it got fused to the spindle. (I still have it laying around somewhere lol) This was back when I wasn't comfortable doing this kind of work on my own car. But a year later and much more experience, I would do it in a heartbeat.