It finally happened...

[bhazard]

You're complaining about the festiva chassis yet you're trying to mix and match jankity parts instead of using a tried and true combo with new parts....

[neanderpaul]

You're complaining about the festiva chassis yet you're trying to mix and match jankity parts instead of using a tried and true combo with new parts....

x2

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Tracer knuckles with full aspire suspension, knuckles didn't work for me..well the lcas were the problem, they didn't bend up enough to bolt to the frame. The pinch bolt location is about an inch and a half lower on the tracer knuckles. stock knuckles with aspire rack and rods, Festy outters, aspire sway bar didn't work, upside down downside up, it just didn't seem like it was worth the extra work to do it properly. Festy knuckles with stock lcas, aspire inners are too long, I don't know maybe if I had a regular nut instead of a knuckle mount nut for a backing nut it might have worked. The only thing I am not keeping a stock part is the steering rack. The rod in the steering rack is thicker but all else is the same and it should be fine with Festiva inner and outter tie rods.

I have/had and drove Rio knuckles on one of my old aspires, they work just fine. I need to keep stock Festiva bolt pattern for my wheels or that would have been the swap I did a long time ago. Shouldn't need anything special to put Rio knuckles on a Festy except aspire or Rio or EGT outter tie rod ends, same as a aspire knuckle. The tab that goes into a hole on the caliper for the brake line won't line up..you can bend it, cut it off, or just angle it a little further so it clears the side of the caliper..no big deal.


I'd totally buy that aspire off you Paul, but I've got too many vehicles as it is. If this stupid car would have ran this weekend I would possibly have driven home a new to me truck...it has to wait now, don't know when ill get another chance to go get it, hopefully by the end of the month?? A minivan, a Festiva, two aspires, and soon an f150, I'm thinking its about time to sell something



I don't know what tried and true combo your talking about, aspire and Rio knuckles are out of the question, and its really unfortunate for me because I have a couple spare sets I could use if I wanted to. As far as I knew three days ago the aspire sway bar was a tried and true bolt in swap, but that's just not the case. It's do-able, but not something I care to do.

[bhazard]

Try setting it up "right" and see what happens?

[zoom zoom]

Huh...no now your making sense why would anybody want to do that :p

I'm keeping my lift -_-

and my wheels.

[getnpsi]

Aspire swap and 4x100 to 4x114.3 adapters. Doesn't make sense to me either on the surface but THAT works heh. I understand an awesome wider track w/o killing wheel bearings after 2 oil changes is a great notion but that just headaches it seems.

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I don't know how long the wheel bearings will last...they're the same as Spire bearings...I think the tie rods and lca probably takes the most abuse, wheel bearings are pinched in place and just spin. If you think about it though, the offset really isn't much different than a high negative offset wheel, like an aspire steely..the rim is just a little wider.

[Gomez]

Think of it like a breaker bar. The longer the bar (further from center) the stronger the torque applied to the center. Your wheels are a longer breaker bar applying more pressure to be applied to the bearings. No worries though. You like it, It looks cool and the only thing you are out is a set of cheap (not expensive) bearings every so often. You could have a wheel with a mile offset but as long as the centerline of the wheel stays put, NO extra pressure on the bearings. But you will have a wheel 2 miles wide with a +38mm offset. LOL don't mind the haters, They be all jealous and shi_.

[jason_]

Bearings will take more grunt.

They're the floating cushion between spindle and hub.

I took a dually rear end, used it for a Hilo axle, and for tires welded centers in a tractor rim, and turned around so they were wider.

Bearings held up, but snapped the spindle off the end of the tube.

So, I used a 20k# semi rear end. Heh.

Off topic, my next creation is a 4 wheel steer AND hinged in middle loader frame with a pair of cement truck front axles.

with a proportioning valve, and a spool, all linkage steers equal, or isolate the knuckles or hinge for steer application.

Gonna be slick. Perkins diesel driving a pump that'll power a hydraulic motor that spins input shaft on a 15sp fuller, with a 3 sp aux. Cheap way to get my shuttle shift.

Sent from my rooted HTC Supersonic using Tapatalk 2 Pro

[zoom zoom]

The cars been sitting on jackstands for the last couple days, just too mad to even touch it. I got the new axle today, it's a duralast part so it's one of those 13 month parts, but I'm getting new inners and outters. The old axle came out pretty easy, I might have learned the trick to the axles, the last 2-3 have been simple. New seal is pressed in and I should have all but the steering rack in place soon.

Rob was right about the aspire sway bar pushing the tire back about 3/4" and adding bad caster...I'm not sure that the energy suspension bushings would even pull it forward enough to make up for it, so that's out of the question for now, until I get a drill press and some more metal stock on hand.

The stock sway bar just seems really flimsy to me. I can stand it upright and push it down 6" or so, I can imagine how much the stress of the road is pushing and pulling on it. It's going back on the car but it will be the next thing to be replaced if anything needs replaced.

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The only thing wrong with this pic is a lack of redbull. I guess Bud Light will have to do.

[Gomez]

Wish I was there to hang out. What you doing tonight? You working on it?

[zoom zoom]

Yea man working on it Haha...I don't know if ill get very far, some has to wait until tomorrow morning.

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Everything is bolted up and I drove it for a little bit, but something is wrong with the motor now. At first it blew out a little smoke, after it ran for a couple minutes that stopped, after it was warm I took it for a spin and on the return trip I pegged out first, the needle hit 6, bounced to 6500, then I hit the clutch and coasted into the driveway. Just took it for a short trip and it runs good in the upper rpm but putts like a pontiac below 2500. Sounds like metal on metal scraping and its not coming from the alternator brushes. I can't tell but I think the steering issue is gone, all I was getting was torque steer, but I haven't driven it for more than about 15 minutes.

I put the stethascope on the block and couldn't really hear anything unusual, didn't hear anything from the head either, other than lifters chattering. I think I need to take the valve cover off and inspect the rockets and cam, or maybe do a compression check first? Either way I've got work to do tomorrow...I was hoping to drive the festy but I guess its just not gonna happen....

To top it off, I had a hell of a time swapping in a new fuse block when one of the spade terminals broke off trying to swap fusable links for real fuses, my duralast torque wrench (3rd one this year) was gritty feeling when I twisted it out to 130 ft lbs, and clicked when I felt like it was around 60 ft lbs, and I broke a screwdriver and one of my favorite little picks. But hey the carpet, passenger floorboard, and the whole rear half of the car is clean.

[zoom zoom]

feel like an idiot.. got the valve cover off, when I was pulling it off, I noticed the #1 injector socket got knocked halfway off...I probably bumped it when I took the speedo cable out to top off tranny fluid cause I reach down from that side to get the bolt out...anyway plugged the injector back in and it seems to be running fine again. >.<