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Yesterday I dragged home a little Russian farm girl who is sure to get me in trouble. She's a bit rough around the edges but seems to be willing to please. only time will tell. As yet untouched, here are some gore pics to satisfy curiosity. I think it's about the same size as our trailer!  Trim designed to rip through even the toughest pedestrian.  5 link rear suspension, towbar and bizarroland exhaust.  Some gauges. The warning lights even do things like flash, which is pretty cool.  More gauges. These are all stock.  Some seats. This is where butts go.  That battery was the one that was in it. I may have ran it flat doing horrible things to get it out of the trailer. The levers are gear stick, center diff lock and range select. And handbrake of course. Just out of sight to the left under the dash is the bonnet opener lever.  A fair bit of space behind the back seats for a small vehicle. The back seat can be folded forward for more luggage room. The front seats can have their headrests removed and folded back to transform into berth mode. Ie laid out to sleep in. It's in the operations manual even!  A couple of engine goreshots. The straps in the engine bay are for the spare wheel. The puny bike lock chain is for I don't know.    These things are known as a Lada Niva in these parts. Over in their homeland they are called a VAZ 2121. This one is powered by a Fiat based 1.6L OHC motor. It has a 5 (I think) speed manual transmission and is permanent AWD. The transfer case is a gear drive unit with a range selector (H/L/N) and a center diff lock. The engine has features such as a primer lever on the fuel pump and the ability to be cranked by hand using the supplied crank. No I will not be doing a video of that. Cranks are dangerous. I think that will do for a starter. If you want to know something, ask away! It'll be a little while before I get started.
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Apr 13, 2013 22:37
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This car is amazing.
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Apr 13, 2013 22:44
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ultimateforce posted:This car is amazing. It's something that's for sure. Apparently I forgot to do a front shot. To my surprise yesterday I noticed it still had the stalks for the headlight wipers. I want to see if I can get the motors working again. It also has a rear wiper and washer. Forgot to take a shot of that. To get into the back, the whole seat pivots forward. I was told that Toranas do it the same way. Also not seen is the big AM CB aerial sticking out of the middle of the front bumper.
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Apr 13, 2013 22:49
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Glad you finally got your little Russian pile of communist glory mate! Think you will be surprised just how easy those little bastards are to keep running in some sense of the word...
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Apr 13, 2013 23:13
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Ferremit posted:Glad you finally got your little Russian pile of communist glory mate! That's a nice way of putting it. It's one of the reasons for getting it. I literally spend more time working on the Fairlane than driving it and have no backup. It's intended to be a cheap fun car and a gap filler for when I need to do major repairs. You'll also be happy to know the brakes work fine 
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Apr 13, 2013 23:30
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I saw a few of these when my flight landed in Georgia, I really wanted to bring one home. This is too awesome
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Apr 14, 2013 00:41
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CommieGIR posted:I saw a few of these when my flight landed in Georgia, I really wanted to bring one home. You may have been able to fit it in your luggage  In spite of myself I started doing stuff. I picked up most of the miscellaneous crap in the cabin and shoved it in the toolbox in the back. I also decided to try bleeding the clutch. There is zero resistance. The reservoir was also empty. I know it was full a couple of weeks ago. Bleeding as per the service manual was doing SFA so I'm just gravity bleeding it. I had to stop though for household stuff but I did get one chain of bubbles through the hose so far. That's a good sign. There's no signs of fluid leaks anywhere so I don't know what the deal is. The master and slave will be replaced eventually but for now I just want to be able to move it easily. What else. I stuffed all that random wiring back into the centre of the dash and put the speaker looking grille back on. There is so much hack job wiring to be addressed. One of them is what I think is the rear window washer button or something that has been rewired to be the horn. And the mysterious relays, wires and fuses patched into things. I don't mind wiring so it's not that bad. Not something for today though.
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Apr 14, 2013 00:47
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General_Failure posted:You may have been able to fit it in your luggage I always thought we could just drop the ramp on our C-130 and let me roll one on, after all everyone else was bringing back beer from Germany, why can't I bring back a car?
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Apr 14, 2013 00:50
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CommieGIR posted:I always thought we could just drop the ramp on our C-130 and let me roll one on, after all everyone else was bringing back beer from Germany, why can't I bring back a car? If you packed the car with beer nobody would have complained.
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Apr 14, 2013 00:52
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How come you Aussies get all the cool random old cars?
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Apr 14, 2013 00:52
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Devyl posted:How come you Aussies get all the cool random old cars? That's entirely a matter of perspective. Don't forget these things are still in production.
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Apr 14, 2013 01:20
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General_Failure posted:That's entirely a matter of perspective. Don't forget these things are still in production. It needs a turbodiesel.
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Apr 14, 2013 01:31
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General_Failure posted:That's entirely a matter of perspective. Don't forget these things are still in production. I saw one on the street a few days ago - it's not like they're really that rare, you could probably find one on eBay. I partially disassembled a Riva head in the junkyard last summer to try and figure out what kind of engine it had.
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Apr 14, 2013 03:07
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This thing is so awesome. I'd gladly own one of these instead of the rover.
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Apr 14, 2013 03:15
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F I N A L L Y
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Apr 14, 2013 03:22
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I grabbed some cheap lovely premix coolant from the supermarket after taking the trailer back. I figure it's better than the current rustwasser. Doubt I'll get around to doing that today but it's there for when I do have some time. e: I should add what was hand written on the back cover of the service manual in thick marker pen. quote:"Shoot for the moon General_Failure fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Apr 14, 2013 |
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Apr 14, 2013 03:41
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General_Failure posted:That's entirely a matter of perspective. Don't forget these things are still in production. Well, the Niva for all it's problems was / is a pretty good offroader. They even did well at Raid style events
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Apr 14, 2013 04:09
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I don't know if I could fold myself up to fit in it, but does it kinda remind me of a early Subaru.
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Apr 14, 2013 04:15
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As an American my knowledge of Russian cars is pretty much limited to that Top Gear episode about them a season or two ago... Is it true that Russian is where you go when you feel like British and Italian cars are too reliable? I mean, are they really that bad? Interesting looking Lada though, and what a creamy color! 
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Apr 14, 2013 04:18
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InterceptorV8 posted:I don't know if I could fold myself up to fit in it, but does it kinda remind me of a early Subaru. How big are you? I'm 6' and have plenty of headroom. Foot room is so-so but I've had worse.
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Apr 14, 2013 04:36
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General_Failure posted:How big are you? I'm 6' and have plenty of headroom. Foot room is so-so but I've had worse. I'm like 6 feet, but it's all waist up. Like I have short loving legs.
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Apr 14, 2013 05:12
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This is awesome. Earlier this winter I saw one of these with a snow plough on the front. Wish I had the chance to take a picture.
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Apr 14, 2013 08:06
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InterceptorV8 posted:I'm like 6 feet, but it's all waist up. Like I have short loving legs. About the same build as me then. Laser Cow posted:This is awesome. Earlier this winter I saw one of these with a snow plough on the front. Wish I had the chance to take a picture. Awesome. Never mind. I'm sure there are photos somewhere of it. Progress report! Using various techniques and a lot of persistence I managed to bleed the clutch. Before I could test it out I had to secure the battery. So I took the hold down top bit from the VW. No loss. I bought it form the hardware store a few months ago. I can get another one. It fit fine. I topped up the lube, started it and proceeded to go back and forth the few car lengths of space I had. Trying out both low and high range in 1st. They work fine. Brakes work well too. If they didn't I would have gont through the gate or the trailer. While I was at it I tested some of the electrics. The front and rear wipers work. Front washer works. Indicators and hazards seem to. Didn't test much else. I fixed the drivers side wiper which was wedged with a dog bone. The clip for the blade holder thing wasn't attached to the arm. After a little finagling I got it to clip in. I had to re-bend the arm too because it was wrong. That's about it I think. Did I mention it still has the stalks / motor assemblies for the headlight wipers? Oil pressure seems fine too which is good. I'm aching to change the sludge with coolant but that will have to wait until later in the week.
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Apr 14, 2013 08:21
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I just realised my thread title probably means little to everyone. Niva means Crop Field. The Lada logo is a Viking ship. Well, there you go.
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Apr 14, 2013 11:20
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These things hold their value quite well, I've noticed. Same with Mahindras.CommieGIR posted:It needs a turbodiesel. General_Failure posted:Niva means Crop Field. The Lada logo is a Viking ship.
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Apr 14, 2013 12:01
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InitialDave posted:These things hold their value quite well, I've noticed. Same with Mahindras. I don't think it's even a kit. As far as I know the 1.9 diesel was an option. I know it's possible to buy the front diff support bracket for the diesels from the factory in Volga(?). I even know someone that did exactly that and retrofit it to try to cut down on noise or something. Fun fact. the front diff is mounted to the underside of the engine. You are absolutely right about the Rover Viking ship. How odd. Fiat DOHC motors can be retrofit but it's not a drop-in by any means. There's a lot of work involved to make it physically compatible. There's also someone that has a ca18 turbo in one. I may be wrong but I think he is semi local to me too. e: I may be able to get a matching 5th wheel for a spare, and I also have a possible lead on the headlight wipers but I'm told it's a good idea to see if I can get the rest of the assemblies working first. General_Failure fucked around with this message at 12:26 on Apr 14, 2013 |
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Apr 14, 2013 12:07
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Congratulations, next chapter begins. The interior looks surprisingly clean while engine bay wiring is terrifying. Btw, here's a small starter kit for North America: http://alberta.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-cars-trucks-Lada-Niva-Cossack-4x4-collection-W0QQAdIdZ458424670
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Apr 14, 2013 15:47
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iv46vi posted:Congratulations, next chapter begins. The interior looks surprisingly clean while engine bay wiring is terrifying. $5000 for 7. That's not bad. Well there was one or two U.S. goons on here that liked the look of them. Collect the set! e: crap I forgot to say what I was going to. The engine bay isn't bad. It's mostly stock. They just look like that. About all I have to do besides a fluid change and a tune is replace a vacuum hose connector, remove the weird added in wiring and possibly do something about the fan. like many of them the shroud is missing. Many can get away with it but I doubt I can so thermo fans seems like a good option. It's a common mod. I've set them up before too so it's easy. Just a shade expensive. General_Failure fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Apr 14, 2013 |
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Apr 14, 2013 21:41
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No progress, but while I was unloading the car from the trip I took a front photo. Couldn't do it previously because of where it was parked.
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Apr 14, 2013 22:46
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CB? Fishing rod? Both?
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Apr 14, 2013 22:52
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InitialDave posted:CB? Fishing rod? Both? Just an AM CB aerial. Although that is an awesome idea for a multipurpose item. By awesome I mean terrible but there's always someone. I think I have a spare AM CB in the shed, and I have a UHF I got at a garage sale recently that I'd like to fit too, but that will have to wait. While I was unloading all the extra poo poo from the car this morning I was thinking about the thermo fans, internally bitching about how expensive they are. Then I looked up and saw one of the big thermo fans I pulled out of the Magna hanging on the wall. There's a suck and a blow. Not the low profile things. The big thick ones with an unguarded metal frame designed to maim and kill. I suppose I could use one of them.
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Apr 14, 2013 22:58
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If you talk to some people who grew up in the late forties, it seems that army-surplus CB aerials were the hot tip for making yourself a pretty decent fishing rod on the cheap.
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Apr 14, 2013 23:01
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InitialDave posted:If you talk to some people who grew up in the late forties, it seems that army-surplus CB aerials were the hot tip for making yourself a pretty decent fishing rod on the cheap. Well how about that. I can't speak for the really old ones but I know the '70s and '80s ones were definitely fiberglass. AM CBs are pretty useless these days because about the only people that seem to use them are the Asian community. Especially shop owners. It's pretty common to see a base station sitting behind the counter. I have no idea why and I've never asked. Ever since UHF came in, AM has been nearly silent. e: That's not racist is it? I hope not. Just about the only radio traffic on AM these days is in an Asian dialect. I can't say which though. General_Failure fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Apr 14, 2013 |
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Apr 14, 2013 23:04
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AM was starting to make a resurgence in popularity with 4WDers because of all the spastics making GBS threads up the UHF bands with their $5 handheld uhfs. Bit less of an issue now they split the UHF spacings to 12.5khz so there's 80 channels rather than 40- your more likely to find a quiet channel now.
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Apr 14, 2013 23:38
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Cool car, Mr Failure!Mat_Drinks posted:As an American my knowledge of Russian cars is pretty much limited to that Top Gear episode about them a season or two ago... Is it true that Russian is where you go when you feel like British and Italian cars are too reliable? I mean, are they really that bad? Let me put it like this. A friend was interested in buying a new one, so we went to the importer (which sells them directly without resellers here) and test drove one. The car had less than 1000 miles on it, and the immobilizer (factory mounted) was already acting weird so it took the sales guy about five minutes of loving about with the key to get it started, and when we went on our merry way the gears where already starting to grind on reverse and downshifting from 3 to 2. But drat if it didn't climb like a goat and was quite fun to drive. When we got back we talked a little about the car and my friend asked about colour options. The guy told us that they send an e-mail to the factory with requests for colours, and the factory usually answers with "yeah, we wont be making any more cars with that colour until [half a year later], have some [in a completely different colour] instead". Here are some nice brand new ones for your viewing pleasure! 149000 SEK is about 22k USD.
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Apr 14, 2013 23:39
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Nidhg00670000 posted:Cool car, Mr Failure! I wonder what the hell was happening with the transmission! They should be pretty solid. they aren't the strongest ones on earth but unless you are an rear end in a top hat to them they should be just fine. Can't comment on the immobilizer though. Sounds kind of tacked on. Apparently they can make them to order with all sorts of options. They even have special purpose models on their website available for order. I guess they do the colours in batches. I have to agree with you on the fun bit. Relatively light, very short wheelbase wide AWD / 4x4 with good ground clearance. All win. Minor progress report. I attacked some of the rusty bits with some phosphoric acid based stuff. I think this one puts a plastic-y coating on it too. The label started to wear off ages ago so I can't say. I also cleaned the windows because I had to do the Fairlane for a trip, and did a quick test clean on one of the doors too. Because I can make patterns in the oxidation where I touch it normally I figure maybe it did some good. I don't know. Last night I had this urge to rub the whole car down with inox but that's probably a retardedly bad idea so I won't. e: http://www.inox-mx3.com/product_detail.php?productID=10&productContentID=47&pageID=APPLICATIONS hmm... No I really shouldn't but it's so tempting. General_Failure fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Apr 15, 2013 |
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Apr 15, 2013 01:19
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Friend worked for a forestry company back in the late 80's and were testing Nivas for works vehicles for out in the plantations. Offroad they went awesomely, but the issue was when they went flying towards a major highway at 100kph, touched the brakes, had the master cylinder blow its seals (on a 1200km old car) and went sailing across the intersection at about 95kph. They decided on Toyotas after that...
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Apr 15, 2013 03:18
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Ferremit posted:Friend worked for a forestry company back in the late 80's and were testing Nivas for works vehicles for out in the plantations. Yeah there were factory QC issues. No doubt about that. Pretty sure this one isn't factory fresh so now I only need to deal with PO shenanigans.
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Apr 15, 2013 09:02
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Mat_Drinks posted:As an American my knowledge of Russian cars is pretty much limited to that Top Gear episode about them a season or two ago... Is it true that Russian is where you go when you feel like British and Italian cars are too reliable? I mean, are they really that bad? Well, yes and no. Russia has a thing for building everything bigger and stronger than everyone else, but at the same time, they have a huge thing for cheap mass production. Cheap, not necessarily inexpensive. Thus, you have stuff like WW2 tanks built from massively thick steel, but with no concessions whatsoever to crew comfort. From the Top Gear communist cars segment, Clarkson pretty much summed up their entire design and production philosophy in his description of the Lada sedan. Simplified compared to the Fiat it's based on, but not necessarily in particularly smart ways (aluminum brake drums all round, for instance), yet built with parts that any town blacksmith could fix and a stupidly durable extra-thick steel body because Mother Russia  At the same time, Russia has an extremely rich history of art and all things beautiful, just look at some of the subway stations in Moscow. Unfortunately, most of this beauty was strictly for the Tsar family and other aristocrats only. Combine this with the unique Russian fatalistic "Don't interfere, that's probably the way it's supposed to be, if we rock the boat, we'll just make it even worse for ourselves" approach to life, honed through centuries of oppression and general poverty, and you have the recipe for one amazingly complex and interesting country and culture, that is unlike the western world in so many ways. Not to mention that Russia covers roughly 1/8th of all the inhabited land area in the world. It's massively big on a completely outrageous scale and there is amazing diversity from one end to the other. You think Australia is huge at ~7,7 million square kilometers? Russia covers ~17 million square kilometers. In many ways, the Niva is the AK-47 of cars. Basic, dependable and easy to fix in a pinch, no matter where in the world you happen to be. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 12:12 on Apr 15, 2013 |
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Apr 15, 2013 12:05
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KozmoNaut posted:Awesomeness. I decided to check the lights tonight. Connected the battery, hopped in and it started first go without complaint. It's so much happier than it was with the PO. And to think I have the timing chain adjustment, points and timing planned for tomorrow. There I am, sitting in the cabin. Pitch black except for the reassuring flicker of the gauges and the slow flashing of the hand brake warning light. The cabin has that sweet, slightly oily smell of fond long lost memories. The eager buzz of the engine filling my ears, telling me it wants to go for a drive. It's nice. ...so all the lights work except for the left parking light. Probably just a blown bulb. The knob for the gauge lights seems broken or something. It has a screw thread that the knob goes on. That doesn't quite seem right or functional to me. I'll deal with that later. The flickering is a bit odd. It only seems to manifest in the parkers and gauge lights but the headlights are fine. I had some fun witth the headlights. There is a switch on the dash which controls the parkers. But the headlights are controlled by one of the three stalks. down is off. 1st click is low, second is high. In low the stalk can be pulled back to flash high. Took me a few minutes to figure this out. I have the operation manual but I didn't think to look in it. Another neat thing is it doesn't have a dome light. It has a couple of lights on the tops of the B pillars with a switch like an older household light switch. The driver's door is also designed so it can only be locked with a key. I like that feature.
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Apr 15, 2013 12:34
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