The 1993 Lada Niva – вездеходный тест (Off Road Test)

The very next day Shawn and I packed up some light camping supplies in the Lada and convinced my wife Steph to “go 4x4-ing” something she had previously enjoyed in Shawn’s old 1987 Ford Ranger pickup truck, I think she was still skeptical of the Niva but agreed.

We had selected a modest test area, since there was no second vehicle to assist in recovery if something went wrong, a short 30 minute drive delivered us to the area. Shawn and I had hiked the area on foot during the fall and knew that there wouldn’t be anything damaging hidden under the 12 inches of snow that had accumulated since. We arrived on the access road without much issue, aside from having to run with the windows open at -15 degree Celsius due to the fuel smell, and being limited to 90-100 km/h top speed. At one spot we missed our road and Shawn elected to make a 3 point turn, but the road was a bit slippery and the shoulder dropped away as the front wheels touched it. We were actually stuck, I dismounted and pushed while Shawn rocked the Lada rearward, 20 seconds later we were free and rolling along again.

 Soon we reached our chosen trail and Shawn selected low range and began to climb the snow bank into the woods. The snow underfoot was hard packed and took considerable effort to move through, keeping the wheels spinning and the engine RPM high was key, but the Lada performed very well. Before long we had arrived at our campsite and gave the Niva a quick inspection 

Nothing appeared to be out of place, the new differential mount was holding and aside from an un-located engine oil drip we were looking good.

Assured the vehicle was good, we left the doors open to help air out the obnoxious fuel smell, and set to having a bit of food. We had a roaring campfire going in no time and were roasting hotdogs on hand cut sticks. Hanging from a forked branch was my 1L “Billy Can” that provided us with boiling water for hot chocolate, served in tin mugs. As the sun began to settle and the temperature dropped, we mounted back up in the Lada and made our way out.

We were a little surprised to find out after tearing around in the snow that Shawn had forgotten to engage the center differential lock, being used to truck 4x4 systems  it is understandable. Still we were quite surprised with the capabilities of the Lada, even in stock form.  Aside from the very brief ditch incident we never needed to exit the vehicle and it got us where we wanted to go. In the end Steph enjoyed herself too and seemed interested to go again.

After a review of the way the Niva worked, Shawn and I began to draft a list of what to tackle next, and that takes us to our next article…

The 1993 Lada Niva – ремонт (Repairs)

The Independent Front Differential Support kit arrived from Lada World Denmark in 14 days, 4 days to land in Canada and the other 10 for it to cross the country and be delivered. During our wait we didn’t do much with the Lada aside from make plans of action and pick up oil and a filter. Shawn had visited Italmotors in Edmonton, where he found a filter and was invited to return with the Lada once it ran. Italmotors had been an actual Lada dealer during the time when they were still being imported to Canada, and the owners still had a soft spot for them. They also mentioned they had plenty of factory and maintenance parts left in inventory if we needed any, this would prove quite useful in the future. (Foreshadowing here)

Since the differential kit had landed in my mailbox on the 12^th of December we decided to use the very next weekend to repair the Lada and we had hopes of making a small off-road excursion when the job was complete.

Shawn removing the tires

That Friday we parked the Niva in the heated splendor of the Grand Touring Concepts garage and once it had thawed a little we Shawn and I set to work. We had the vehicle on stands and the wheels off in no time, Shawn used this opportunity to inspect the front brakes. We were pleased to find lots of life left in the pads and were surprised to discover 3 piston calipers, something never seen on a North American vehicle.

Shawn inspects the brakes.

We removed the axles and noted all of the CV joint boots were damaged, some worse than others, but all would need to be replaced to ensure a long life from these difficult to find (in Canada) items. Luckily, we had expected this and knew that the local Canadian Tire (parts store) stocked various universal replacement CV boot kits for a reasonable price. As it would happen, one of the lower shock mounting bolts was seized into place and no matter how carefully we worked at it, gave us no choice but to snap it off. This wasn’t a big issue, but GTC’s stock of metric bolts and fasteners is somewhat limited so we made a note to grab a replacement during our parts run for CV boots the next day.

Since we still had some time to burn in the evening we were quick to drain the front axle housing and install the rear portion of the independent differential mount. It consisted of a steel plate, which replaced the factory aluminum plate & drain plug, with two bushings that clamp over the front swaybar (located near the firewall) providing a solid but isolated mount.

We also noticed that the Independent differential kit as supplied was slightly different from the Diesel Lada parts described in the manual pictures. In the manual, they appear to house the axle seal and be made of aluminum. Ours were made of cast steel, and since they had no provision for the axle seal, bolted over the factory housing ends, which are fixed to the CV axles. This wasn’t a deal breaker, but would make installation a little bit of a juggle and would require us to procure longer axle mounting studs.

The next day, after a quick parts trip we returned with the items to finish this job

100cm (36”) M8 “all thread” rod to make into 6x M8X40mm studs for the axle housing, these would replace the factory M8x35mm studs and allow us to install the new front differential  “arms”.

1x M10x55mm Nut & Bolt to replace the lower shock bolt.

And;

4X Universal CV Boots

Shortly after we’d begun working, we’d realized that the metal CV boot bands suck and that we were out of the requisite sized zip ties to stand in, however we did have a Jesse “Hotwheels” Guerette on hand to send on a quest for some ties. Meanwhile Shawn and I resumed work on the Lada.

Jesse "Hotwheels" Guerette with an unrelated chili dog.

Jesse had been gone for quite some time, and the run to the nearby Bumper to Bumper parts store was a mere 30 kilometers round trip, what was keeping him? After 1 hour and 15 minutes had elapsed and we’d run out of things to fix, I called Jesse to find out what had become of him. He quickly answered and reported he was on his way back, but had stopped to help out “two fine ladies” in a large SUV who were stuck in the ditch. I left him to his driving while Shawn jokingly wagered that Jesse had attempted to tow out their stricken vehicle with his Hyundai Accent, knowing Jesse, I declined it.

Jesse's 2009 Hyundai Accent during the 2012 K-Spec shakedown

 And a good thing I did too…

Once Jesse got back, Shawn began to finish up the CV axles for re-installation using the ties Jesse delivered, while I began to press for the story. Jesse excitedly told his tale, he’d been driving along when he spotted an Acura MDX lodged in the snowy ditch, inside were two girls, and feeling the call of gentlemanly duty he pulled over to help. Using his ever present tow straps, he hooked his 2009 Hyundai Accent onto the big SUV, despite his determination he was unable to dislodge the Acura MDX. Soon, a fellow in a Chevrolet pickup came along and pulled in to help. Since the pickup owner didn’t have any tow rope, Jesse had to stay until the vehicle was extracted. At one point, he said, the pickup had taken a running start and when the rope came up tight, it tore the Acura’s screw-in recovery lug out of the bumper, destroying the threads and rendering it useless. He said they hooked on to “something else” (undisclosed) and completed extraction. Only then was he able to continue onwards for the zip ties we required.

By the time Jesse had finished up his story, Shawn had the CV axles taken care of, with new boots and packed with grease. We also removed the last remaining piece of the original differential mount and found it too was cracked, this one last piece that stood between the entire differential falling out on the ground. Something to consider when we were informed by the seller that the previous owner had driven it out of the wood where it had originally failed. Next up we started turning out axle housing studs from the “all thread” rod and running them in with blue Loctite compound. Shawn mocked up the front parts of the differential mount and tack welded the front mount brackets into place. It became clear that in order to install the bolts which held the mounts to the brackets we would need to clearance the oil pan on our 1.6L gasoline engine. We didn’t need a lot of room so we were able to massage the passenger side of the pan (of our left-hand drive Niva) with a ball-peen hammer. Using a few slim washers as spacers we were able to make the whole works fit and after the brackets were finish welded, and some Napa 80W90 gear oil added, we were complete with the install.

We also used this opportunity to change the oil for a 10W40 conventional, using a Made in Canada “Lada Line” filter over the Fram we removed. Fram oil filters are not held in high regard in our shop and we are looking into alternate part numbers for when the supply of Lada ones dry up. Just before remounting the wheel we decided to bleed the brake and check for leaks in the system as we noted the brake fluid reservoir was completely dry when we recovered the Lada. We bled the whole system and didn’t find any obvious leaks, but the brakes did still leave something to be desired.

For the short term we wrote it off to being a Lada, and based on people’s descriptions of poor braking performance we simply lowered our expectations. Just the same as we had with the noisy engine, and other “Lada” issues.

It was after 11pm and -15 degrees Celsius when we went for our first road test, filling the 42 Liter fuel tank at the local Husky gas station we immediately noticed a strong fuel smell in the cab. This was something that we wondered if it was just another “Lada” thing as many owners complain of fumes, or if we should inspect, we decided to do that another day if it lingered. The Niva ran surprisingly well, the Weber carburetor worked alright, and owner reports of 120 km/h being the top speed and slow acceleration were accurate.

The engine seemed most happy at 80 km/h and had a noticeable power spike around 3500 rpm, but once it hit 4200 rpm it felt very sluggish. The overall vehicle noise in the cab was substantial, nearly rivaling the MLVW trucks with their V8 Detroit Diesels I had driven in the Army. The heater managed to keep the windows clear but had little more to spare for the occupants, we had checked the heater control valve and it was brand new, so perhaps the radiator needs to be blocked up for winter use.

When leaving from a stop we noticed there was a lot of driveline noise under the transmission tunnel and each of the three sticks (Shifter, High-Low Range, & Differential Lock) each danced their own independent jigs. That was something that would need attention before too long we figured.

Testing on a snowy covered dirt road, the Lada would a little animal in Low range with the center differential locked; it pulled cleanly and found traction no matter the road surface. It was even capable of 80 km/h in low range!

Also the brakes, they sucked, they got us stopped, but felt unassisted, something else that would get looked into. After we returned home another swing past the Husky station for fuel gave us our first report for fuelly:  66.46 kilometers, 13.427 liters, 11.7 US MPG (20.2 L/100km)

Follow the Lada on fulley here: http://www.fuelly.com/driver/darren5l/niva

While  the Lada still had some bugs to work out, we decided it was fit for a short off-road trial the day .

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...