Rear Knuckle Disassembly Question

[jrally]

The adjustable arms are interchangable from side to side. If I remember correctly, the rear crossmember lines up almost perfectly with the chassis rails on the Festiva, like it was meant to bolt into place. You're challenge will be getting the rear struts right. I would certainly look at using a strut top mount off of something other than the BG chassis cars. Find maybe a nice symetrical two or three bolt mount from some other Japanese car. pick-a-part yards are great resources for doing this kind of homework.

-Jon R. (previous owner of the Festiva-RS, rally car)

[jimmystiva]

The adjustable arms are interchangable from side to side. If I remember correctly, the rear crossmember lines up almost perfectly with the chassis rails on the Festiva, like it was meant to bolt into place. You're challenge will be getting the rear struts right. I would certainly look at using a strut top mount off of something other than the BG chassis cars. Find maybe a nice symetrical two or three bolt mount from some other Japanese car. pick-a-part yards are great resources for doing this kind of homework.

-Jon R. (previous owner of the Festiva-RS, rally car)

Yeah, I was planning on using some Ground Control coil-over sleeves and making custom upper mounts similar to the stock Festiva rear upper mounts. There isn't enough room in the Festiva shock towers to do much of an upper mount anyway - a camber plate wouldn't give you more than 1-2degrees of adjustment - if that.

I am planning to reinforce the shock towers and run a bar to triangulate the towers down to the floor area where the Escort crossmember is going to be, then maybe back to the rear bumper mount inside the trunk area and forward to the area where the rear seatbelt attach. I figure those are probably the most reinforced parts of the body originally, I'll probably see something better when I get under there and really start planning that part.

I figured there would be a lot bracing to be done, and that doesn't really worry me. I don't have any interior parts to put back is so I can sacrifice the interior space in the name of suspension adjustability.

I also have a friend with a TIG and 1.5" tubing bender who is bugging me to let him build a cage for the car - if I do have to go that far, but I'd rather spare the weight if I can. No sense putting all the Escort parts on a Festiva is it ends up as heavy as an Escort.

You have any pics of your old Festiva? I'd love to check it out.

And no, I didn't have any luck with the spindle, but I didn't try much tonight. I got sidetracked with RX-7 calipers... Look for that thread...

[jrally]

I can dig up a few pics soon, I just sold the car last June. My first race, I ebnt the rear towers. The spring loading of the coilover was different than the stock springs, so the towers both pushed up about 1/2" or more. It was an easy fix though, hammer them down flat again and weld in reinforcing plates. Basically plated the entire top side of the tower with 1/8" sheet.
http://www.fordfestiva.com/FOTM/306_car_specs.htm (here is a short right up/spec sheet with a small jump pic.)

-Jon R.

[FE3-323]

sweet festy

[EricM]

those aren't miata wheels in the picture, they're oem BG LX rims!!!

[jrally]

The write-up also mentions Miata rims being used for pavement use, the picture is me jumping the car at a super special during Rim of the World Rally, dirt. I had 195/55R14 Dunlop SP's on Miata rims for a road rally I was going to run in Encinata, and any planned track play. Those rims and tire are now on my Protege, not a recommended size, rare and now costly. The wheels in the pictures are the smoother 7 spoke LX Protege wheel. They worked fantastic, in two years of off-road abuse, I never bent one. Certainly chipped the lips on them, had 3 or 4 flats on stage, but just kept rolling.

-Jon R.

[SgtRauksauff]

those bolts are a HUGE PITA.

One thing that might help, though, if you've got access to a welder.

I've used this technique to get broken-off bolts out of heads before.

Basically, I'd keep the bolt head to the point where you can still fit a wrench on it, but take a welder , and put the ground clamp somewhere on the hub, then just start laying some bead on the top of the bolt.

The high current going through the bolt will sometimes help burn out the oxidized metal.

I haven't tried this on the spindle bolts yet, but it works really really good with the bolts broken off in heads. I was literally able to turn the bolts out with a screwdriver, that's how loose it got them.

--sarge

[FE3-323]

good trick sarge,

[jimmystiva]

I'll have to try that. I don't think the propane torch was supplying enough heat.

I've also been playing with electrolytic/sodium carbonate rust removal. I hadn't been having much luck with it, but I richened the solution a little bit and let the caliper with the stuck guide pin soak for a couple of days and was able to tap it out by hand. I had been heating/pounding on it for a couple of hours before without it budging at all.

I don't imagine it would be practical to do the electrolysis thing for two days on every stuck bolt you run into though.

I bet the welder works on a similar principal though, electrolytic reaction, but on a much faster scale.