The 1993 Lada Niva – сюрпризы и частей (Surprises and Parts)

First up was to tackle the broken engine mount. We scoured the self-service parts yards for Nivas and came up empty, but Shawn did find one of the Lada Signet (Riva) wagons and went to work. He came away with an engine mount, distributer, carburetor, intake manifold, exhaust manifold, various fasteners, and a fistful of the factory grey silicone vacuum hose. Lots of great items to help us get our own Lada running.

The engine mount turned out to be a mismatch, but Shawn was able to build an adapter to as use a substitute until we found a factory one. Looking over the engine we found the vacuum advance was broken and not only failing to advance the ignition timing, but was causing a huge vacuum leak. Within minutes the donor Riva advance mechanism was changed over and our distributer was repaired. This would prove to be a common trend with the Niva, lots of small problems that were easily repaired.  

Shawn fixes the distributer with Lada Riva parts

Since the vehicle had been stored indoors away from the cold, our efforts to start the engine were rewarded with fuel from the tank; we can only guess that the lines were frozen with condensation, blocking flow.

Once we had run out of time doing tinkering projects, we were planning on having Shawn drive the Niva  a ½ kilometer home just to check everything out, but as soon as he tried to roll out of the shop we knew something was dreadfully wrong. Each time the vehicle moved forwards or back, there was an awful thumping from the driveline. With the hood open and a few bumps of the clutch, we were able to diagnose the issue, the front pinion was wrapping up into the front sway bar while the pinion yoke skipped across it, giving us our thumping sound.

We wedged a piece of wood between the engine oil pan and the front pinion to allow us to move it short distances, parked it and set down to research what could be going on.

Online resources such as Baxter’s  Niva Site (http://www.ladaniva.co.uk/baxter/NivaMainPage.htm) allowed us to chase down .pdf copies of the Driver’s Handbook, Maintenance Manual, Cutaway Illustrations and a Parts Catalogue. These resources made it very clear what the issue was, and was our first experience in the overly simple nature, but quirky nature of Russian engineering.

The Front Differential bolts to the engine!

Since our Niva had been partially disassembled when we bought it, we had no idea what it should have looked like underhood, so it was an honest mistake to miss that our front differential mount was absent.

This photo from the cutaway book should help illustrate the issue, the items indicated by the red arrows, the brackets were missing and the mounting bosses were broken from the housing. This made re-installation of a factory piece very difficult, impossible without doing some aluminum welding.

We were at an impasse with how to proceed next, many owners who reported this issue simply installed another housing. However all of our searches for a replacement came up empty, aside from trying to procure another entire vehicle to strip parts from. This wasn’t something we wanted to do.

More research on the internet led us to Lada World (www.ladaworld.com) where we were able to track down a solution.

Independent front differential support, part number 21215-10 and its item description caught my attention:

“It was originally created for the LADA Niva Diesel (fitted with the engine from PSA). The front reducer housing (Front Differential) is not able to be attached to the Diesel engine because of a different design in the engine housing, and Diesel engines are also known to vibrate with higher amplitude compared to Gasoline. The kit solved both problems.

The kit will give your front reducer housing 4 fix-points, hence a more rigid attachment to the body of the car. The old front reducer housing only has 2 fix-points (on the engine).

The kit is made with elastic sleeves (rubber) in all 4 fix-points. The old design does not use any elastic sleeves, and is just bolted straight to the engine.”

Photo from www.ladaworld.com

 This kit eliminated the old way of doing things and moved attachment to the body, actually cradling the front differential in a somewhat normal fashion. I should note that Lada World is located in Denmark, and while I have had success shipping stuff from nearly every continent on the planet, the prospect of shipping from Europe was a bit daunting. Just as a backup, I tried a Lada parts dealer in Australia for a quote but was rebuffed with a simple declaration of “We only stock original parts” despite the fact these items are built by Autovaz and carry a Lada part number. That decided, we placed our online order at Lada World and played the waiting game.

The 1993 Lada Niva – оценка (Assessment)

 

The moment we had some time, the Lada was moved into the heated shop at Grand Touring Concepts for an inspection to see what we had gotten. Getting the non-running Lada into the shop was an affair all of its own. We had spark and air alright, two-thirds of the ingredients for combustion, but still we could not get fuel to come up from the tank. Since we didn’t have to go far, it was decided to use an old trick and place a small jerry can of fuel under the hood with siphon hose to feed the carburetor.

Since there was ample room underhood where the spare tire normally resides, the gas can dropped in quite naturally and we were set. The little engine clattered to life and not only ran, but drove under its own power into the shop.

From there we were able to begin defining what we had.

If you aren’t familiar with the Niva, I suggest the following link for a quick primer; I will build up a “driver’s perspective” article at a later date:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lada_Niva

Starting with the body, out front there was a very obvious winch bumper with a rope style fairlead, the factory white paint had been re-sprayed with a near match, which was peeling in some places. There was some surface rust, but no rust-out that required repair. We didn’t buy this vehicle to be a show car trophy winner, so a bit of rust and rough paint was acceptable.

The roof was heavily dented from someone presumably standing on it, and the wipers were simply wrecked. Back to the good side, the BWA 15”X 6” wheels were wrapped in a set of 205/80/15 Aurora Mud Tires which were in very good shape.

The interior was another story, when new a 1993 Lada would rate a 3 out of 5 by North American standards, ours arrived as a definite 1 out of 5, perhaps a 3/5 by Lada standards. The interior was there and still mostly in place, the Cossack seat covers over the “school bus vinyl” heavily worn, a stereo system had been installed at some point (why?) and removed, leaving us with a somewhat compromised electrical system.

Moving to the driveline, we found the oil soaked 1.6L engine literally sitting on the front differential, because one of the previous owners had actually removed the broken engine mount, and it was not located with the vehicle. In the rear we found a bent control arm, but that didn’t appear to be a major repair item. A Weber conversion had been done which was a huge plus, the exhaust had been partially redone with a Magnaflow muffler, a good starting point.

It might be difficult to imagine, but the cooling system was intact and leak free, a bonus there.

We began to build our growing list of things to fix:

Broken engine mount

Fuel supply from tank

Tune and Tune-up the Engine

Dent removal

Headlight replacement

 and so on...

The 1993 Lada Niva - восстановление (Recovery)

The first order of business in recovering the Lada was to arrange a tow-dolly from U-Haul. This proved to be a bit of a challenge, because using their online booking system had no listing for a Lada, of any sort. Being an American based business this comes as no real surprise, so I tried the telephone booking, keeping a backup plan in mind. 

That too was an interesting exchange:

I placed my reservation with U-haul's US based booking center and was kindly asked, "Now sir, what exactly is a Lada Miva?" After some explanation, we settled on booking it in as a 1993 Suzuki Sidekick... LOL. I think he was mildly suspicious once I said built by Russians before the wall fell...

After that we were all set for our pickup, bright and early on Saturday morning.

November 10^th arrived, clear, sunny and cold, but the roads were an absolute mess, densely packed ice had rendered the streets a skating rink, indeed a fine time to pull a trailer! Most importantly, it would make a fine adventure!

The pickup at the 50^th Street, Edmonton U-Haul spot went without issue, and we were soon underway in the 2003 SVT Lightning to recover our prized “1993 Suzuki  Sidekick” ahem, Lada Niva Cossack. We made our way to Leduc without issue, making out much better than the plethora of ditched vehicles passed on the trip.

The Lada was nestled between an 8 foot high fence and a garage that faced out to the single lane alleyway. Shawn and I figured the best bet would be to try and gently drive the Niva out of that spot and onto the tow dolly, assuming we could make it run of course. We set to work quickly, slaving the dead Lada battery to the Lightning’s potent charging system while cranking up the 1.6L Fiat designed engine. After a few attempts with no real success we decided to stop messing around and made a quick trip to the nearby Canadian Tire for some parts and a fresh battery.

Better prepared, we returned with a battery, new fuel filters, a can of ether, and 10 Liters of gasoline. The engine really wanted to run with the new parts and a squirt or two of ether, but we weren’t getting fuel flow up to the carburetor. Since we were on a deadline to return the dolly, I simply backed the dolly in front of the Lada, Shawn popped it into Low Range and used the absence of a neutral safety switch to “drive” on to the dolly using the starter and new battery.

The little Niva was strapped down and ready in minutes, and with the Center Differential in Neutral we were able to tow without having the front wheels spin. A quick tug test and inspection at the nearby CO-OP gas bar and we were underway back north.

While travelling up Highway 2 a fellow in a Toyota 4x4 made a special point of lingering next to us as we rolled along, and then pulled ahead to wave and give us a hearty “thumbs-up”. It seems we weren’t the only Lada enthusiasts on the road that day.

Despite the awful roads and delays due to wrecks, we safely delivered the Lada to Grand Touring Concepts and returned the dolly to U-Haul without incident. Next up it was time to assess what we had, and what needed to be repaired.

The Lada Niva Toolkit (in English!)

Since our Lada Niva came minus the factory toolkit, and Lada can suffer from “intermittent running issues” we have been keen to either track down a replacement or build one from selections at Princess Auto (Harbor Freight to USA, Clarke to UK etc). After searching for a tool listing around the various internet resources I found lots of pictures of the toolkit but none of them had an actual list. However, after searching for one specific part number (12mm Allen wrench) I came across a manual that had the parts list… in Hungarian. Harnessing the power of Google Translate and a bit of logic I have been able to draft the following reference list.

12 – Ignition Adjustment Key

39 – Pressure Gauge, (Tires and Fuel)

41 – Fuel Hose

13 – Work Light 12V

43 – Bulb 21W (Work Light)

36 – Starter Handle

17 – Wrench, Open Ended 8mm & 10mm

22 – Wrench, Open Ended 13mm & 17mm

24 – Allen Key 12mm

25 – Wheel Wrench 19mm

28 – Socket, 8mm & 10mm

26 – Socket, 13/16 (Sparkplug)

27 – Punch, 8mm diameter X 150mm long (Socket Handle)

31 – Tire Lever/Iron

29 – Combined Screwdriver (Flat & Phillips)

32 – Tool Bag

30 – Pliers, Slip-Joint

23 – Wrench, Open Ended 22mm & 24mm

16 – Wrench, Open Ended 17mm & 19mm

19 – Wrench, Offset Box Ended 17mm & 19mm

18 – Wrench, Offset Box Ended 12mm & 13mm

37 – Jack, with Handle

42 – Hand Tire Pump

38 – Strap, Rubber (For Securing Jack)

10 – Strap, Rubber (For Securing Tool Kit)

11 – Strap, Rubber (For Securing Spare Tire)