brake job

[rabbitracer]

the brakes on my 88 festy are horrible, my dad didnt put pads on soon enough and its grinding metal to metal( he was using the e-brake to stop! :shock: )i read that on the festy you have to take the hubs to a shop to get the new rotors pressed in? is the correct?

since it needs new rotors, pads, calipers and maybe a new master cyl( it seems to be leaking sometimes slightly) should i just do an aspire swap? from what i've read everything just bolts up am i correct?

[mattswabb]

Do the aspire swap if you can get the stuff. The reason they wore out so fast is that the pins the caliper floats on are probably seized up so they don't wear right. Also the rotor warp so easily.

Also on the rear the park brake/adjuster arm freezes up. Take the rears apart and free up this lever. Then the rear brakes will adjust themselves and give you a better pedal feel.

[Safety Guy]

I'd go for the Aspire swap if at all possible, especially if you will be buying rebuilt calipers, etc. Don't spend all that $$ on stock Festiva brakes!

Go to the 'yard and find yourself an Aspire to cannibalize.

Since you're planning on an engine swap later, this is the best thing for that, too. Even if it's "just" a B6 with "only" 82 hp. You'll be glad you did!

Also, check your hard brake lines for corrosion, etc. Do it right the first time.

Some advice:

-Spray PB Blaster on everything you can get to a week or so ahead of time. Do this several times until you do the swap. Last swap I did one of my rear axle bracket captive nuts inside the body came loose and I had to take apart my fuel filler lines and chisel a larger hole to put a socket on the loose nut to get it off. Sh*t happens.

-Use '91 to '95 Escort tie rod ends if you buy them new. They are about half the price of comparable quality Aspire tie rod ends.

-The day (or hour) before you start, make sure you can get your old tie rod ends off. I've only been able to get one off myself on my two swaps. It may take a torch or other special tools to do this.

-The same thing goes for the Aspire rear axle shock bolts at the trailing arms. Those are a PITA sometimes. Sometimes they come out without a hitch, other times you need a torch, etc. On my first swap, I just used the Aspire rear shocks so I didn't even remove them.

-Check to make sure you can get the rubber brake hoses off the hard line junctions. This is a potential problem area due to corrosion. At the 'yard, you can just cut or bend (till they break) the Aspire hard lines behind the junction to get them off. You can't do that with your Festiva hard lines since you need them to work!

-Like Matt said, check the Aspire self-adjuster ends for free movement. These things freeze up sometimes. My last Aspire rear axle had a perfect right side brake drum--looked brand new. The left side was corroded to hell and back and needed a new brake cylinder as well. It really sucked having to redo the perfect side along with the nasty one! (Oh well, now I have some good spare brake parts.)


Karl