1982 Lada Niva

Yeah, same as a my nemesis flex disc or donut as we call them but this being russian is more rudimentary, you can see how it is constructed. I hate those things my right foot seems to destroy them quickly.
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Today i spent the entire evening diagnosing the drivetrain vibration, i lifted the little niva on 4 jack stands removed the inspection plates from the interior run it with the wheels on and off, under load all speeds up and down in the rpm range, but everything is vibrating at once. As strange as i sounds feels more like is coming from the gearbox then the transfer case, i'll be dropping down the transfer case tomorrow, as much as i need just to sneak the coupling pass it, there is certainly something going in the coupling, because there is metal sound coming from it under light load, the rubber flex disc and U joint next to it have been changed in the last decade or two but the bolts look suspicious, crooked and not all same length.
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It was a long long day in the big garage, the little niva is apart in a way it has not been disassembled before. I had to drop the transfer case down to remove the coupler between it and the gearbox and surprise, surprise. It has multiple problems the biggest of which i haven't taken picture the nut on the output flange has unscrewed itself, breaking the snap ring pushing off the the solid bearing in the middle of the rubber joint and mashruming the end of the output shaft. Also the seal there is leaking, the rubber joint is ok but i already bought new one to replace it, the U joint is shot had a small amount of play in it, bought a new one, i also found a gearbox flange in my spares and bought a new factory oil seal and removed all the factory bolts to replace the miss mach ones and removed the good solid bearing from my spare gearbox and its snap ring. There are witness marks everywhere that some time in the past this coupling has come apart. I bought the best quality parts i could find i don't want to be doing this again.
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I am not sure but we are not related some how. :grin: Seems I usually have the same type of luck when working on things.
 
Yeah, that donut and universal look pretty beat up!

I'm just glad the project is in good hands.

Watching with interest......
-brino
 
Today i got tangled with my day job so i got home very late and very tired so i only did some prep for tomorrow so i can put it back together. Started with cleaning all the flanges and painting them, cleaning the bolts, measuring oil seal flanges, cleaning them with fine sandpaper just busy work so i can assemble them with ease tomorrow.
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Last few days i've been on and off working to get the little Niva fixed, i managed to get dirt and rust in my eye twice more but i managed to wash it out also my health started to act up so i spent a day in bed, that slow me down but finally i managed to put it back together, i had to make a new solid bearing i made it from bronze i also had to repair the output shaft on the gearbox, is was worn down i'll be test driving it tomorrow to check but there is a good chance i'll be changing the gearbox, i also found out i made the hub on one of the wheel adapters too tight, so i chuck it in my lathe and took couple of cut i also faced it to get rid of the marks i made taking the wheel off.
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It's time for an update, I've been driving the little niva around my neighborhood, also took it in the mountain terrain, then in a rock quarry and jump it on couple of small bumps, just to settle the suspension, got the entire drivetrain up to temp and it is better, is has a small vibration in 4 gear but its short, speedo stopped working so i used a GPS to see what speed it likes and it is by far the slowest vehicle i own, i took it to 80km/h (50 mph) and it will run out of gear around 90-100km/h (60mph) i'm also a bit down on power it got better as i drove it but also engine RPM is hard to come by, i know those engines are not race engines more but it gets really noisy above 3000 RPM it seams to go a bit lean and i'm thinking it runs out of timing advance. You can see the dust on the fresh paint from the rock quarry.
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Today i stopped by a parts store to get some oil, and this caught my eye, i usually use 2" hitch ball but i've had instances where i've needed a smaller one because the lock won't engage so i bought this 1 7/8" trailer hitch ball mainly because it is shiny, i'll be making the rest that goes in the receiver on my own.
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Last few days the boys and girls in the inspection station and at the police station (DMV here) spent some quality time with me, both my daily driven cars wore do for inspection also it's time to register the little niva as well. My daly cars passed no problems in fact we all were surprised how little it pollutes despite being an 25 year mechanical diesel, on the opposite end the little niva just as the test started it started vaping, i think it fails the spark plugs or the float in the carburetor got stuck because i could smell row fuel and the tester did show it. As for the brakes i go a comment "wow i've never seen a lada show more than 500 N on the back drums" and the little niva showed more than a 1100 N in fact the handbrake showed more than the foot brake, so my calculations are good i don't need to add a proportioning valve. At the end i did run into a snag, it still is in the government's name, i was told it will be resolved by tomorrow, so hopefully i'll get my license plates tomorrow.
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