-
Welcome back Guest! Did you know you can mentor other members here at H-M? If not, please check out our Relaunch of Hobby Machinist Mentoring Program!
1982 Lada Niva
- Thread starter GoceKU
- Start date
Yup thats along the lines i was thinking.
Today i finally found few hours to get something done on the little niva. The big garage is full of cars and a big mess because i started cleaning it and stopped in the middle, so i took the axle outside and started the clean up there i wirebrashed it, then i used a scraper to clean around the bolts and then i used couple of different wrenches to unbolt the 16 bolts to take it apart, pulling the axle shafts wasn't too hard, then i pull the brake backing plates, after doing that on both sides i took the diff carrier out, and everything looks good inside, no real wearing on any of the gears, freeplay feels tight, the spline on the axles are not twisted of warn and as expected the gear ratio is 4,3 : 1. Then i clean the diff carrier some more and painted it factory correct, gloss black. By this time it was pitch black outside but i continued giving the axle housing wirebrashing one more time and sprayed it down with anti rust acide and left it to work.
Today after finishing the brake job from hell on the octavia i spent the rest of the afternoon over my lathe machining the axle shafts of the little niva. The little niva is an old school vehicle an the bake discs are hold on by the wheel studs on the back of the wheel flange. So i chunk up the axle to the wheel hub and supported the other end with a live centre. I checked the axle for runout on all machined surfaces and found minimal runout, then i took small cuts till i got to the 108mm size and faced the vertical side to clean the face for the disc to seat flash. Then i did the same on the other axle and made sure the discs fit. I wasn't surprised or impressed with the quality or the machining on the new OEM Lada brake discs, you can see they have been machined on a lathe, probably same as my with a very dull cutter lots of chatter, something that is not acceptable in my machine shop i may just use them like that, they'll worn down with use if i get vibration is easy enough just to pop them out and turn them on the axle shafts. The Axle shafts themselves are in excellent shape, straight, bearings feel good splines look good, seal journals look like new, much better then the housing.
This morning i had few minutes to spare so i thought i'll do something for the little niva, the two upper bolts for the links on the rear axle are very specific length and size and very difficult to found new. So trying to fix the ones i have, i grabbed the front in my lathe and cut down the mushroomed end then i centre drill it then i clean out the threads with a die. Then reposition it so i can hold the hex with the chuck and supported the other end with a live centre, then i cut off the bushing sleeve. I can easily made new ones from steel but they will rust like the originals, i'll keep my eye open for some stainless rod in that size.
I realize lots of times its a matter of working with what you have available But I have a feeling you are the type of person who, regardless of how easy it would be to just go buy a new "one", would see if it could be repaired before being replaced and I Admire that in this throw away world! Keep up the Good work.
I do like to use new hardware when i can find proper quality and keep the old ones in my spare bolts baskets for a rainy day but is getting harder and harder to find true 8,8 grade bolts. About the wheel studs i asked around also visited the better supplied parts stores they did not have anything close to them all the studs are shorter and smaller, i'll have to take my measurements and may have to make the wheel spacers thinner so i can have safe number of threads on the wheel studs.