The FASTiva

[Native]

Crap yeah I forgot to mention the shifter...1-2 was feeling odd. Glad you noticed it.

[BrilloHeadBen]

Now that you mention it, grabbing 2nd felt weird to me as well. Kinda feels like you missed the shift, but didn't.

[twistedwankel]

If Fastiva gets any lighter ONLY really old farts can drive it who eat soda crackers.

The 1-2 shift was done to the beat of a drum in the back of the boat. Right? Talk to the drummer. Stoke, stroke.

I thought it meant I was dying but the wipers came on to make it all real again.

[Loren]

Oh, btw... cruising home on US41 through Land O Lakes minding my own business. The passenger in the old Jeep Cherokee next to me rolls his window down and yells "awesome car, sir!"

Yeah. Some people get it.

[twistedwankel]

Cruising home less than 10 miles in the Pewter Pig I was challenged by 6 people in Mustangs, Dodges and Chevys but I waved them all off. I did the hi-five to three other Vette drivers. I had a jeep Wrangler once and I had to learn the "Jeep wave". Loren, Jamie lives in Land O Lakes. Maybe he can explain it to you. Sir in "Redneck" isn't what you think it means. Your face was red, you were sweating like a pig due to no AC, windows down and your arms were tired from no Power Steering. They were checking to see if you were ready to "roll".

I "get" the Fastiva. It's an experiment in currency exchange. Like a boat my mom had. "Hole in the water into which one throws money." Doesn't keep it from being FUN.

[Loren]

My wife doesn't get it.

[Jamie]

Loren, Jamie lives in Land O Lakes. Maybe he can explain it to you. Sir in "Redneck" isn't what you think it means.

Not that complex. It means you're either old enough to be the other guy's father, or you look like you have enough cash to buy their car. Which would really make me worry about the condition of that Jeep....

And I don't live in LOL any longer...moved west.

[Loren]

It's all fun and games until someone loses an engine mount bolt.

OR

I got 99 problems, but... well, I just got 99 problems!

Anyhow. I put the FASTiva on ramps to look it over, and found some obvious problems. I'm actually a fan of obvious problems, as long as they're easy to fix!

The root problem is that our mechanic didn't sufficiently torque the rear engine mount bolts. The lower one fell out. The upper one is loose.



This caused additional engine movement, which appears to have worn the front engine mount.



Surely, this allowed even more engine movement, which totally ate up what was left of the bushing on the front of our shifter rod.



And, the easiest fix... all that engine movement popped out one of the rubber hangers on the cat.



Aside from the usual persistent transmission fluid leak, everything else looks pretty normal. Now... what to do about these bushings...

[Loren]

Okay, the blown bushing is a "shift stabilizer" bushing. Poly replacement on order!

Ben is going to source a replacement engine mount bolt from salvage.

We'll be back to 100 percent (heh) on Friday.

[Native]

Good lord - doin' it right!
Thanks for digging into it.

[twistedwankel]

Solid engine mounts. Bushings are for stock cars driven by secretaries. Bang gears not bushings.

[Loren]

Solid engine mounts. Bushings are for stock cars driven by secretaries. Bang gears not bushings.

Ah, but something's gotta give somewhere. I'd rather replace the occasional rubber mount than to have to be constantly welding broken metal! All the stress of our 63 hp and mondo torque has to go somewhere.

That said, I did order another replacement front engine mount (that's the one that's sagging in spite of being fairly new and having the voids filled with polyurethane). It was cheap, as are most Festiva parts. We're probably gonna de-rubberize it and hand the shell to Joe Brannon. Joe's got a little lathe and can turn us a proper poly bushing to plug into it. Not "solid", but much firmer and should hold up a lot longer.

Because race car.

[twistedwankel]

Go Joe.

I saw a message that said there is a new patent on a variable compression Infiniti engine. That's BS. The Fastiva has had a different compression on each cylinder for years. Sue them.

[Native]

ROFL

[AScoda]

Cats are for.....well nothing, really. But certainly not racecar!

[Loren]

Oh, that's just the icing on the cake. "You got beat by a car with 63 horsepower, AND it's emissions legal."

[Loren]

The FASTiva development team (me, Ben and Philip for today) spent some time on the car today.

Got the deteriorated shift stabilizer bushing replaced, which made an amazing difference in the shifter feel. (go figure) Ben was unable to find a replacement transmission mount bolt... because he couldn't find a Festiva in any local salvage yard. Or an Aspire, or a Kia Rio, or any of the other Ford/Mazda cars that would have a similar mount! That's right, the Festiva is becoming rare and exotic... we highly recommend that you buy yours soon before the prices spike.

Anyway, we were able to measure the bolt and the thread pitch, and I'll be ordering a replacement for it. We'll have to get all of that sorted before September 10th. Shouldn't be a problem.

The big success story of the day was adding 7 pounds of lightness to the front of the car! Here's what happened:

[Rawkkrawler]

Are you guys turning any wrenches tomorrow by chance? I'd be interested in a piece of this madness!

[AScoda]

Oh, that's just the icing on the cake. "You got beat by a car with 63 horsepower, AND it's emissions legal."

I've seen the plume of burnt dinosaur squeezin's coming out of that tailpipe. It is totally not going to pass any emission test.

[Loren]

Oh, that's just the icing on the cake. "You got beat by a car with 63 horsepower, AND it's emissions legal."

I've seen the plume of burnt dinosaur squeezin's coming out of that tailpipe. It is totally not going to pass any emission test.

That fact does nothing to alleviate the shame of losing to a 63 hp crap can.