Rio parts

[Christ]

I'm gonna change the control arms on my Festiva (the red one) to keep it on the road for now, but since I'm changing knuckles and putting new struts and springs on it, I want to freshen everything up and get whatever parts will prepare the car for further mods.

That said, has anyone used Rio control arms, and do they work for us? Are they too long, too short, offset, etc...

And what about the EGT or Rio rear beam? Is it wider than the stock/aspire beam? I want a wider wheel base without using high offsets.

Is there enough room to use an offset bearing plate with a spherical joint for the upper strut mount to make up for the offset from using Aspire LCA's?

[zoom zoom]

Rio lcas won't even work on an aspire because of the bend at the lca box that puts the wheel too far forward in the wheel well, so there's no chance they will work for a Festy. I don't know what an EGT rear end looks like but you can pretty much forget anything rio when it comes to rear suspension upgrades on festys.

[Bert]

I distinctly recall having to use Festy LCAs, and Aspire tie rods, on my Aspire swap. Aspire LCAs moved the wheels out too far, which popped loose the Festy driveaxles and also messed up the castor/camber significantly. Festy tie rods are not correct shaft/taper for Aspire hubs.
Rear beam on Rios is a whole different 'get up' from Festy/Aspire. Pointless to re-invent the wheel in trying to adapt one to Festys.

[Christ]

I looked at a bunch of parts pictures today to figure out why certain things just wouldn't work.

The Aspire LCA is about 3/8" too long. How much longer is the Aspire's axle? I can make bearing plate strut mounts with an offset bearing to push the strut out to take care of the camber issue if I can find long enough axles that will work, and that gives me the extra front track of using the Escort/Rio (whichever) hubs as well as +3/8" on each side.

I can widen the Aspire rear beam (unless I find something else that I can adapt to work) by adding spacer plates behind the axle stubs and using longer bolts. Everything still bolts together as it should and nothing really changes except the brake line gets bent slightly more and the ebrake cable has to be adjusted for the difference. Spacer can also easily turn into an adapter plate to bolt on a caliper and use rear discs, as well.

If I did so, I'd use a mechanical/hydraulic caliper like GM's midsize 90's cars used, so the parking brake attaches directly to the caliper and actuates the piston mechanically.

What are the differences between Festiva/Aspire inner tie rods? Can they be used interchangeably?

[Bert]

Aspire axle is also about 3/8" longer. Trouble with all that is you'll be spinning the tie rods a further 3/8 out along the inner tie rods and I'm not sure how much thread is left holding after that. And I don't think you want to start replacing steering racks (assuming Aspire and Festy inner tie rods are same length (ie same part number).

[Christ]

Actually, I'm considering replacing the steering rack anyway. It's starting to get loose, so that wouldn't be too much of an issue.

AFAIK, the Aspire rack is essentially a swap-in, too.

The cool thing is that I can get a kit w/ the LCA's and inner/outer tie rods for like $100 for the Aspire, and axles are the same price range for both cars.

[TheresGabe]

Why not just use the Festiva stuff?

LCA's are $27.99 made by Dorman, they can have them to you next day coming out of Tennessee.

The Inner Tie Rod is $32.99 and the outer is $12.99.

You can re-do the entire thing, with the parts that belong to the car, BRAND NEW for $130ish...

[Christ]

Why not just use the Festiva stuff?

LCA's are $27.99 made by Dorman, they can have them to you next day coming out of Tennessee.

The Inner Tie Rod is $32.99 and the outer is $12.99.

You can re-do the entire thing, with the parts that belong to the car, BRAND NEW for $130ish...

Go back and read. Your answer is there.

[92L]

common issue when people do 1.8t swaps from a mk4 to a mk3 volkswagen....you said the lca from an aspire was to long that it pulled the axle out? correct? so take the aspire axle and create a hybrid axle by using the festys cvs so that they fit correctly in the hub and the axle itself is long enough so that it doesn't pull out. just a thought idk how that would work with a festy/aspire axle but it works great with a vw axle.

[RhodeStiva]

Rio parts

I did my rio swap and used aspire control arms.

[Movin]

The aspire control arm was too short by 5/8 inch. The festy axle with the aspire long travel CV works with long travel front suspension. Lifting gets interesting quick!

[RhodeStiva]

The aspire control arm was too short by 5/8 inch. The festy axle with the aspire long travel CV works with long travel front suspension. Lifting gets interesting quick!

so when i put my aspire lcas' on i will also need to get aspire cv axles or would the stock axles work.
kiario.jpgkiario2.jpgthese pictures is of the stock festiva lcas' my camber is way off my tires look like \ /

so if the aspire control arm is a little longer it should fit better fixing the camber right?