New owner!

[bbqsauce]

Just purchased a 1990 Ford Festiva GL. Peppy lil' booger! I think I already made my first mistake when I washed the motor. :shock: I covered what I thought was important(distributor, air intake) and I thought I was careful but now it seems to be running on three cylinders. I've never owned anything like this small and it looks basic but any help is appreciated.

I'd also like to know anyone can tell me of any good resources in TX for Festiva parts & upgrades. Any recommendations concerning any type of upgrade (I figure suspension and drive train first) would also be very appreciated. I'm actually thinking of trying to get it a little more off the ground so I can get over curbs when I need to.

[25Horseplay]

I had that problem before also, covered the dist. and it still got wet. I dries it all out and it ran fine again.

[bbqsauce]

thanks!

That lessens the worry! Thought I goofed already. Can you recommend any particular upgrades. I've reading more and more about others using Aspire parts. This website is great! Almost more info than I can digest.

[Safety Guy]

Welcome BBQ!

The Aspire brake and suspension swap is well worth it. You'll essentially be putting Escort level brakes on a car that was barely adequate to begin with. The bar in the rear axle will flatten out your curves, too.

Then think about a B6 swap for an extra 20 or so hp.

I'm hoping to complete my swaps on my '93 in the next few weeks.

Karl

[bbqsauce]

Is there any particular year of Aspire that was a good for performance and maintenance and are there any other vehicles that I can swap parts with. Should I just purchase the front and rear suspension at once or is it something I can do one section at a time. Is there such a thing as an auto 4-speed transmission that will bolt up to this type motor. I'd like to play with the 5-speed but a past hip injury prevents me from using a clutch until I can get the hip replaced.

I'm really starting to enjoy this little beast. even with the 3-speed auto it has lot of pep and spark. This might end up being as fun as my other two past favorites, '65 Ford Falcon 2-door and a '65 Plymouth Valiant. Both were fun and easy to fix and modify and it looks like this might end up as much fun.

Thanks for your replies.

[gdawgs]

Welcome BBQ!

The Aspire brake and suspension swap is well worth it. You'll essentially be putting Escort level brakes on a car that was barely adequate to begin with. The bar in the rear axle will flatten out your curves, too.

Karl

Barely Adequate? You apparently didn't grow up driving a vehicle without power brakes. Try driving a 67 Chevy van or a Chevette. Compared to those things, the Festiva brakes are absolutely incredible! The only brake problems I ever have with Festivas are that the parking brake quits working because the mechanisms inside the drums eventually lock up.

[Safety Guy]

Ah, I had a '76 Classic Chevette that I dearly loved. However, it had the smaller 1400 cc engine w/ 52 hp at 5200 rpm. Maybe it just didn't go fast enough for me to fear the bad brakes! Actually, the rear brakes never seemed to amount to much, so the fronts did most of the work and they did warp pretty quickly.

I did once drive an old Cutlass with manual brakes and that was indeed a beast of a vehicle to stop!

I have to admit that my '93GL Festiva has pretty good brakes. My '89L didn't have good brakes until after the Aspire swap. My solid rotors are still unwarped and reliable. I can't complain.

BBQ, just look for an Aspire with good parts that doesn't have ABS brakes on it. Any year should do, '94 to '97. IMO, a low miles '97 without ABS would be a nice find simply due to the relative newness.

The swap I did for my '89L was from a '96 Aspire. The rear axle beam I recently purchased for my '93GL was from a '95 Aspire. I'm currently working to get one of the shock mounts undone. The shock sleeve has corroded itself to the through-bolt. Nasty! This is the first time I've tried to take off the shocks from a rear axle. My first swap I just kept them on when I transplanted it.

I forget what year my front Aspire struts I got about a year ago are from. They've been sitting around in my garage waiting for "their time."

From talking with Mattswab I've come to believe that the thinner (manual transmission) Aspire rotors are the best bet for a Festiva swap. They will be lighter and reduce unsprung weight while giving exceptional braking. Matt seems to think his automatic rotors are quite strong--maybe too strong. Go with the manual rotors. They're still larger and vented and superior to the Festiva solid rotors.

I think you'd have to overload an Aspire braked Festiva and run it full speed down a mountain to get these things to begin to overheat!

Just my opinion, so don't actually try that!

Karl