Had my Festy break down this morning.....

[muleskinner]

.....It was partially my fault. The left rear spindle bolt failed and came off at about 60 mph. That meant the wheel and drum took off without me. Luckily with it being 4:45 in the morning nobody was around. I was throwing sparks for about 50 yards, then came to a slow stop. I have no idea where the wheel/drum went. I will be looking for it in a few days.
The problem started 3 years ago when I did the rear wheel bearings. I noticed the spindle had very little threads on it like someone had stripped the threads. Well, at the time I didn't have a spare spindle and the nut seemed to have went on good so I thought I would wait to get a spindle then replace it. Well, I had gotten a set of spindles from a junk yard some time ago and just forgot about the stripped threads on my left rear spindle and here I am now wishing I had remembered. Fortunately, Nobody else got involved & the Festy has little to no damage and I will get that spare spindle put on when I get a chance. Oh yeah, it pays to have Premier AAA! I was only 3 hours late for work!

[Greywolf]

Now you have to ask yourself why you had it do that, and I bet you are being quite merciless with yourself...

In an odd way, we all resemble the late but highly amusing "TOP GEAR" show from the BBC


I have always thought that it was better by far to have a spindle drilled for a cotter pin and a castellated nut than one of those ridiculously over-priced lock nuts that you have to bang on to lock down.

Now is your chance to pick which one you want to trust your backside to in the future.


Glad you got outta that in one piece,
CHEERS!

:wave:


TOP GEAR

1) No, I'm not English
2) Yes, I speak it
3) I miss Monty Pythons Flying Circus


PS: You had better find that wheel hub - it may be the last one left in Ohio...

*NOTE: POSTER declines any responsibility for keyboards trashed by BEER spouted all over them
~just sayin'~

[jfd64]

Yikes!!Glad all worked out so well.

[ryanprins13]

Glad you and the car survived. That reminds me. On the festiva i just retired i replaced the rear struts about 4 years ago. We broke a brake line when an air chisel slipped... streched it and reflared it but took several tries because it was rusty. We were in a hurry that night because everything went wrong and it was 1:30am before i got home, Meant to replace it later but it held and i kinda forgot. Sketchy things...

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

[Pigfart]

wow that musta been scary

[muleskinner]

Found the wheel and drum today.
It was laying in the middle grassy area a little ahead of where I stopped.
I will get some picks when I get a chance.

[muleskinner]

Further investigation, I discovered the wheel bearing fused itself to the washer causing it to sheer off the nub and spin which in turn spun the spindle nut off.
I think the bearing must have dried up and over heated fusing it to the washer.
I have some picks, but I'm unable to down load right now.

[Doug Brown]

Glad there was no major drama.

When I was moving/pushing RED, my 92 Festiva future drag racer, from the storage unit to the new huge garage, my right rear wheel and hub came off at low speed (maybe 7-mph) and happily rolled to the side of the road. I only had 0.2 of a mile to go and the axle was clear of the road way so I got a push and got RED into his new home on 3 wheels.

It was a dodgy spindle with stripped threads that I just forced the nut back onto. Worked in the shop for roll around, didn't work for rolling down the road!

I have another dodgy spindle on my dd where I used JB Weld to put the nut back on. It is still working after 10-months of in town driving (!) but I have bought a spare axle and nut to replace it one of these days.

Festiva's are one tough little car....

[redfestiva]

I had that happen to me once while driving a VW Kharman Ghia. The left rear wheel and tire passed me on the freeway. Not good.

[muleskinner]

*sigh* Looks like I will have to retire this Festy. I made the repairs & and a brake line sprung a leak. I looked it over to see how far I need to replace the line and its actually not bad the problem is ..... Well it's name is rusty and the bottom of rusty is rusted bad.
Someone who owned this before had put a lot of repair just on rust, well their rust repairs are starting to fail. The frame on the drivers side from the rear axel to the front is disintegrating and falling apart. I will probably not be able to remove the fuel/gas line mounts that run underneath. I will try to replace that brake line, but the frame their bolted to might crumble when I try to loosen the bolts.
Looks like I will be pulling out the rust free rolling chassis that I purchased off of Barb and start "The Switch". Originally the rolling chassis was going to be used for the wrecked festy we have, but I have found a $100 running festy for my g/f son instead & he has used parts off the wrecked one to get it running good. The $100 festy is his daily driver now.
I will probably post "the switch" on the repair/help forum thread since I am not sure how to switch a carb rolling chassis to an EFI. I was told you need to change the wiring harness & the fuel lines..... sounds easy, HA!