1982 Lada Niva

Today to and back from work i could feel the little niva pulling to the right, check the tire pressures they wore ok. Then i pull it in the small garage check the alignment, i use two tape measures to check it. It was fine, then i lifted the wheels one by one and found the drivers side had lots of free play. And the passenger side was dragging the brakes, so i took it to the big garage, put it on jack stands removed the wheels and found the dust boots on the new brake calipers that i installed less then a year ago has fallen apart. I had 2 new seal kits on a shelf so i changed the seals and clen the corosion. On the drivers side it was the same so it also got new seals and i tighten the wheel bearing on this side. This is my first repair on the front end scene i rebuilt it last and got me thinking i don't have any tools in it, so i went and bought this ratchet wrench set, prices on tools have gone sky high.
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wow, very nice, don't go getting that beauty dirty now
 
Well the weather has changed it got cold and it's been raining, the little niva started to have a little stutter, at low rpm i could hear its ignition related but it was not enough to stop driving it. But today i decaded to take a look, what i found was suprasing. The HT lead from the ignition coil had come off and it was jumping also i realised that the ventilation vents in the hood are directly above the ignition coil and when it rains and snow is getting wet. To fix it, i clean the terminal dump out the water from the cover then i cut a pepsi bottle and made a cover to protect it from water also it holds the lead and its boot. I was surprised how strong of a spark it has, on newer cars is 10x weaker.
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This past week we had the lowest temperatures of the years not much as low as -12 celsius but anything lower than -7 i'm not going to use my diesel cars because we don't have winter diesel, so the little niva put in all the driving.1200-1300 km in a week, it may not seem much but for a 41 year old russian vehicle with the mechanicals like a tractor is a lot. 2 weeks in i heard a noise, like metal pining this was right after i almost got it stuck in over a meter of snow and had to push the engine for half an hour at high revs, most of the time bouncing of the rev limiter. Drove it home and took off the rocker cover and seen that the upper chain slide was missing, it was a bit lower in the head and has completely broken off. And the timing chain is loose, that explain the lose of power on the drive home also the air filter was filthy. I did not have a spare chain slider and the parts stores were open for 30 minutes so i went and bought a slider, air and oil filter but they did not have any 20w50 oil. When i got back i look and i only had 3l of oil so it will have to wait for oil but i changed the slider, tension the timing chain, adjusted the valves, installed new valve cover gasket, new throttle linkage, drain the oil, took off the oil filter, lifted the front so all the oil will drain out. It was close to its oil change interval and with all the metal and rubber shavings from the slider it make sense to do it now. I did take off the coil wire so no one can start it without oil and left it to drain all night, i'll buy some more 20w50 tomorrow and get it back on the road.
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Finally bought some 20w50 oil, it was difficult to found. Seams parts stores and gas station cary only the lightweight oils for newer cars, and the prices are 3x more expensive. So i went to the tractor supply, they only have big packaging so i had to buy 10L jug. Refitted the drain plug, installed a new german oil filter fill the engine with oil and test drove it. Now it drives much better and its a bit more rev happy, i still don't know why the timing chain got so much slack. It's hard to imagine such a biffy chain to have stretched.
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Is 10W/60 available there? Pricey stuff here in the states.
 
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