Rear suspension repair

[ericsmith32]

I'm not to familiar with the rear suspension on the Festiva/Aspire's so I need a bit of schooling. I just happened to discover the Aspire was apparently hit in the rear also. Not quite sure what happened as the only damage is in the tail light area and bent strut on the drivers side. Unless it was 2 separate incidents. Anyways the strut is apparently bent by looking at the top of the strut. It's cocked way to the right where the passenger side is straight up and down. The wheel on that side is pushed more in more on top, very visible from the rear. What I don't know for certain is the state of the control arm.. from little I know I'd say it's bent also but I don't know how much it floats? Probably have to replace the entire rear suspension from the sounds of it?

[ericsmith32]

I think I figured it out by a few pictures on here... the rain stopped me from getting under the car last night. Looks like the whole thing will need to be replaced. Not sure how I'll go about it yet. I'm assuming the 2 and 4 doors are the same but mine has ABS. Doesn't work anyways, well the light is on, not sure how that'll swap. Thank goodness it was a only $200 car.

[Safety Guy]

Unless you luck onto more ABS parts to fix your system, I wouldn't worry about it.

You should probably take off your left side spindle and brake drum backing plate to see it they're bent or the axle mounting point/trailing arm is bent. I suppose there is the possibility that only the backing plate/spindle is bent, but that's just a guess.

Karl

[ericsmith32]

The backing plate and spindle didn't appear to be bent when I replaced the rear bearings. It was loose though. I had to tighten 3 of the bolts couldn't find the 4th. I'm tempted to just take the ABS completely off the car.

[Safety Guy]

Eric wrote:

"The backing plate and spindle didn't appear to be bent when I replaced the rear bearings. It was loose though. I had to tighten 3 of the bolts couldn't find the 4th."

That does not sound good. Did the fourth bolt break off or did you not look hard enough? I'd check on that when possible. It does sound like your trailing arm may be bent. As far as I know there is no difference between 2 and 4 door rear axles. It shouldn't bee too hard to swap in a new one. You can then strip your old axle for all the good parts for spares.

If you do this, get under there ASAP and start applying the PB Blaster to let it soak in! Also consider new rear struts if you need them.

Karl

[ericsmith32]

I looked for ever trying to find that fourth bolt.. the others had a hole to tightened the nut but the never did locate a fourth. Or maybe I did I'm just losing it. Probably no new struts for now.. this Aspire is costing me more than I expected. Now that it's stopped raining I'll hit the bolts with the PB Blaster. I'm not to worried about mine as the car I'm pulling the parts off of. Makes me cringe all the good Aspire's I seen in the yards but at the time didn't need the parts!

I'm thinking about trying to line it up with some shims. Not sure if the bolts are long enough though.

[Festy46]

You have to remove the strut from the swing arm to get to the fourth bolt. Access to the fourth bolt is behind the round part of the bottom of the strut.

[ericsmith32]

Well isn't that handy.. good to know. A engineer must of thought of putting it there.

[ericsmith32]

Upon further inspection the passenger side rear tire looks pushed out on the top. A whole new axle sounds like a smart thing.

[Aspire]

You're in Kansas City, Kansas, right? If you find out if the non-abs will work, then these junkyards have some axle beams that you might wanna look into. Here is a rear axle beam for $60, but they are 140 miles away. You have to call them.

http://www.bandwautosalvage.com/

This one is 35 miles away, but you have to call for a price:

http://www.impactsalvage.com/

[ericsmith32]

There's several in the PNP yards up here I'll get there that is if I can get it off the car. Interesting you bring up Springfield used to live there.

[Aspire]

There's several in the PNP yards up here I'll get there that is if I can get it off the car. Interesting you bring up Springfield used to live there.

You can probably get one for even cheaper at a PNP.

I never pulled one out. But if it's anything like the front suspension, you'll be able to have it all out in 15 minutes....you know sometimes I just slap my car when it acts stupid; stupid silly to work on, that is.