Wrecked the festy this morning. a few questions...

[kingstonpygmies]

so we had a freak snow/ ice storm that dumped about 3 inches of snow and ice here in north georgia. nobody down here was prepared and the gravel trucks are just getting out and about.

this morning i was called in to work at 6 and lost control on a ice patch and slammed into the curb at 20mph. it spun me around a few times and the front tires came off the ground and trippped the inertia switch. reset the switch and limped back home.

1st question. The rear wheel is bent as well as the torsion bar. I have an aspire swap ready to go in but the struts are shot. due to lack of funds would it be ok to temporatily install these?

2nd question. the front is not tracking straight and possibly has a been steering rod or worse. while i have the front suspension out should i swap my steering rack with my aspire one? i have a complete 95 auto aspire that is the donor.

it was a pretty hard hit and i spun probably around 5 or 6 times on the ice. since i am completly going to replace the suspension with aspire parts and possibly the steering while im at it, is there anything else i need to plan for or look at before i fix it?

Thanks for your time and replies in advance..... sorry for poor grammar and typing. hurt my wrist and the pain pills are kickin in.

[kingstonpygmies]

also. if i want to get the maximum ride height for the rear what setup should i choose?
1- stock aspire beam with stock aspire springs
2- Stock aspire beam with festy rear springs
3- stock aspire beam with festy front springs

ive heard that number three will give me the maximum "lift" , just wanting to confirm

[drddan]

Sorry to hear about the wreck.
I wouldnt use the stock Festy springs. IMO I feel they are to soft, especially if they are older.
I have the Aspire struts and springs on my festy (on festy beam) and I love them! The ride is great.
I cant say much on the festy FRONT springs in back, as I have never rode in one set up like that.
Check the spring rates of the front festy springs against the spring rates of the rear aspires. That would give you an estimate of the difference in ride height and stiffness.

[Team Lightning]

Aspire rear springs raised mine about 2 inches. That's a guess because I didn't measure it with a ruler. It sat higher than before even when new. The Aspire springs had 46K on them according to the odometer in the car they were removed from.

[Larry Hampton]

Your rear torsion bar is likely not bent, your spindly spindle likely is. When I bought my 1st Festy, the right rear wheel had quite a lean to it, bought a whole rear beam, turns out it was just the spindle.

[Bert]

Nothing like having a little loop de loop into a curb to help fast-track projects is it? I've got all Aspire stuff on my car (sway bar/beam/knuckles/shocks/springs/struts plus Rio top hats) and have no misgivings. You may want to buzz 1/2 to 1 coil off the springs in order to keep original Festy ride height though. The ride is going to become more firm and that old sensation of 'cornering on the doors' will be gone forever! And you won't be replacing brake pads and shoes anywhere near as often.

[nitrofarm]

I Bunny hopped a 5" curb on ice last year. (Aspire) The chassis Never touched the curb(only the tires) I was able to hit it at an angle as opposed to head on. So the left frt tire hit first.
List of damaged goods
Front sway bar Bent back 3/4"
Broken spring
Struts replaced just to be safe
LCA Ball joint was junk(replaced both)
2 bent rims
In the rear something is bent.I've always suspected the beam because I have to pre load the rear coil overs @ 3/4" different. But now that Larry has "Chimed In" I will look at the Spindle. Wow never thought that could bend before the beam...
My rack started getting sloppy shortly after this. So I replaced ALL Ball joints and rack. (I have bushings that press in to take up any slop if you need) new Reman racks dont come with a new internal bushing.
So this is probably what your up against,not the end of the world. I hit theconcrete median wall @ 85 mph 2 years ago on fathers day in my first Aspire. My paint is still on the concrete (cringed for 2 weeks every time I'd pass buy). Your OK, car is fixable,chalk it up to "A lesson learned". Do it again ,Then it becomes a MISTAKE.

[Larry Hampton]

My old spindle (I think I tossed it) was probably bent 10-15 degrees from the base to the tip.

[nitrofarm]

So it had to bend right at the base I assume. Great info, learn everyday from this forum. Thanks Lar

[Icedawg]

We just fixed up an ice racer that had bent rear suspension parts, and it turned out to be both bent spindles and a bent rear axle (torsion beam as you call it). So you need to check both. Comparing a bent and a straight beam the test for bent proved to be easy. Put a straight edge, or a carpenters right angle on the beam. it should run straight along the edge across the width of the car (right to left), and straight along the bottom of the beam as well. We tested another spare axle from another race car that we thought was OK, and it was bent too. So they do bend, but I think the spindles bend more easily.
If the rear shocks are blown, you should not use them "cause money is tight". There is more than one post on this forum from guys who say the car hit a bump, bounced too much and they had an accident.
I have front Festi springs on the rear cut about 1 1/2 coils to adjust ride height, and the back end is still comfortable, but not nearly as spongy as the Festi rear srpings (rises from ~85 to 90 for the rears to about 110 with the fronts cut and on the back.) To balance it, put Aspire front springs on the front, which are about 10 lbs more than Festi fronts.
On the front end it is more likely the inner tie rods than the steering or sway bar, check the rods first.

[leapin]

Your rear torsion bar is likely not bent, your spindly spindle likely is. When I bought my 1st Festy, the right rear wheel had quite a lean to it, bought a whole rear beam, turns out it was just the spindle.

I bent my rear beam when I spun in the snow and smacked the curb a few years ago. It was a pretty good hit. :S

[dwhite]

weird storm came thru yesterday and i was driving to school and hit a good sized divot covered in snow at 25, scared the shit out of me and everything seemed to rub even more especially the back tires, but it seemed to stop. so hopefully nothing to bad happened rasm

[htchbck]

Kingston if you need any help or a place to work on it my shop is about halfway between Cleveland and Dahlonega. Not sure exactly how far that is from you though, but your welcome to bring it up here if needed.

[kingstonpygmies]

thanks for all the replies guys. I got through swapping the rear beam with only minor glitches. i had to swap over the aspire rear lines because the festy ones wouldn't fit in the bracket on the aspire beam. i got everything back together and bled the brakes. all seems fine right now. the only thing im wanting to revisit is the e brake cable. when i put the aspire one on i tightened up all the slack on it and it is still not engaging. i read at one time that the aspire is a little bit longer so I may just try to swap my festy one back on it. i tried searching for how to properly adjust the cable but my luck has not been good lately. Thanks guys for the input and the help. maybe this week i cant start to tackle the front end......

[Icedawg]

For the brake cable check if the motion is frozen somewhere. I don't think it should be too long. I put an Aspire axle on and did not swap the brake cable, and it worked fine, so something else may be wrong, like the actuator inside the drum and brake assembly. And I don't remember anyone mentioning this problem with the Aspire swap, though it has been years since I checked out those threads, so I might have forgotten something. I suppose you might have to take up some slack by adjusting at the axle beam where the cable interfaces to the two lines that pull the brakes on either side.
Did you measure the old axle & spindle to see which parts bent?