1982 Lada Niva

[GoceKU]

The little niva got new front brakes. One side started to drag the brakes, the brake calipers are original 40 years old, i thought about just replacing the seals but new calipers are not that expensive. The piston part is sold separately i bought left and right and replaced them and reused the steel. Installed a new set of brake pads, bleeding the air from the system was a bit difficult but now i have good brakes, i apply grease around the bleeders to protect them. The niva has an unusual brake system, the front calipers are on two circuits, because of that it has two brake hoses per brake caliper.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

Pretty wild that nivas have 3 piston brakes, I would have expected a single piston sliding caliper on that size car

 

[GoceKU]

That was Innovative back in the 70's, someone probably got a pad on the back for that. One good or bad thing is that the brakes are the same on my old niva as a brand new 2022 niva.

 

[GoceKU]

The little niva got its new shoes test fited. I'm getting it ready to take it to the inspection station to get it registered. I'll put on a standard set of wheels for the inspection but on the 29" wheels it looks and drives much better. I drove it in and out of my drive way thru its suspension travel and the bigger wheels are not catching anywhere, but the wheel studs are a bit short, so i modified the security nuts to get a bit more bite on them and made couple more hex nuts with the same extended thread. You can see the setup i used on my lathe to do it.

 

[koenbro]

How is the 4-wheel drive set up? Does the Niva have front and/or rear differential lockers?


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[GoceKU]

This picture explains it, it has locking centre diff, low and high range, the 4x4 is always on.

 

[GoceKU]

Last few days i've been doing a lot of finishing work on the little niva. I finish assembling the heater and dash, fixed the wiring and lot more little jobs, less pictures more working and finally i think is ready to go for inspection and get registered. I did switch the tires back to the stock tires install its chrome centre caps and gave it a wash. I also remove the LPG tank it needs to be certification but i'll do that later when it can be legally driven. The plan is tomorrow after work i'll take it to the inspection station.

 

[Gaffer]

She's come a long way! You must feel really feels good to be ready for inspection and stretch its legs.

 

[koenbro]

Looking great and LOTS of work behind it.


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[GoceKU]

The little niva pass its inspection and is road legal. But it wasn't uneventful, Idling over the inspection pit for 20 minuts it blow the lower radiator hose, almost scalded the inspector that was checking the front end in the inspection pit, it dumped couple of liter of boiling coolant in the inspection pit. I apologised to the guy in the inspection pit, he has seen that many time and made the joke ( i need a hot shower). The other inspector driving it commented on him ( i told you not to speak bad about Putin), and we all laugh. They are a fan of the older lada's, lada's are considered working men vehicles and they are working people. I finish the paperwork, followed the trail of blue coolant it has leaked down to the entry door, and open the hood seen the hose, loosen the clam with a penny pushed the hose better and tighten it. I had an empty water bottle under the seat went up to the car wash next to the inspection station, found a tap fill it and fill the cooling system, i had to make couple of trips. Fire it up and drive it home, the engine is not to my liking when hot it has no oil pressure at all and the power is just not there, also is not that rew happy.