Sold FOR SALE: LADA NIVA 1.7i 'OLGA' See Page 8

[Micrashed]

Well done indeed

[AeroNautiCal]

Congratulations!

 

I've really enjoyed this thread as these are one of the few 4x4's that I actually would consider owning, and your committed resurrection of Olga has been inspiring, as well as being well documented.

 

Very Well Done!... Enjoy your supper.

[AeroNautiCal]

Congratulations!

 

I've really enjoyed this thread as these are one of the few 4x4's that I actually would consider owning, and your committed resurrection of Olga has been inspiring, as well as being well documented.

 

Very Well Done!... Enjoy your supper.

[DVee8]

Epic read

[DVee8]

Epic read

[stilo_active]

Just spotted this thread, it's epic!! It's a fantastic read, looking forward to the next instalment. Great work!

[stilo_active]

Just spotted this thread, it's epic!! It's a fantastic read, looking forward to the next instalment. Great work!

[Junkman]

The script round the outside reads something like 'Moskovski Metropoliten', so yes it's probably a tube token.

 

Yes it is, but it is special and collectible - it is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Moscow Metro (1995) and good examples bring a Fiver on Ebay.

Why a worker in Tolyatti, where Ladas are built, would lose a Moscow Metro Token, is beyond me. The cities are 750 miles apart.

[Junkman]

The script round the outside reads something like 'Moskovski Metropoliten', so yes it's probably a tube token.

 

Yes it is, but it is special and collectible - it is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Moscow Metro (1995) and good examples bring a Fiver on Ebay.

Why a worker in Tolyatti, where Ladas are built, would lose a Moscow Metro Token, is beyond me. The cities are 750 miles apart.

[skattrd]

Awesome work on getting it legal again .... Just in time for the winter sno kaos on the moors.

[skattrd]

Awesome work on getting it legal again .... Just in time for the winter sno kaos on the moors.

[KruJoe]

It has been while since I've had a photo dump, so bear with me while I curl one out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ready for the first MOT...

 

 

Off he goes.

 

 

 

He made it back! But only just. And with a fail sheet.

 

 

Oh dear. The cause:

 

 

 

Will put a new (the original!) belt back on, the alternator still wouldn't charge. After much messing about, we found a new* earth lead from the scrap 214, and a new* live from the Escort solved the issue.

 

 

That emissions PHAIL brought us to early September, when weeks of painful messing with lambda sensors, cats and error codes began. (Yes, it's a Lada with error codes!) I'll let Will take it from here I think.

 

 

My practical input this month:

 

 

A high pressure fuel line had chafed thin on the battery tray, so I re-enforced it to prevent rupture and OMG FIRE CHAOS.

Happy days!

[KruJoe]

It has been while since I've had a photo dump, so bear with me while I curl one out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ready for the first MOT...

 

 

Off he goes.

 

 

 

He made it back! But only just. And with a fail sheet.

 

 

Oh dear. The cause:

 

 

 

Will put a new (the original!) belt back on, the alternator still wouldn't charge. After much messing about, we found a new* earth lead from the scrap 214, and a new* live from the Escort solved the issue.

 

 

That emissions PHAIL brought us to early September, when weeks of painful messing with lambda sensors, cats and error codes began. (Yes, it's a Lada with error codes!) I'll let Will take it from here I think.

 

 

My practical input this month:

 

 

A high pressure fuel line had chafed thin on the battery tray, so I re-enforced it to prevent rupture and OMG FIRE CHAOS.

Happy days!

[John F]

Ace pics, Joe. I like the new tyres, they look sufficiently gnarly. But is that 'repair' to the fuel line safe, though?

 

Over to you now Will. WE WANTS MOAR OLGA.

[John F]

Ace pics, Joe. I like the new tyres, they look sufficiently gnarly. But is that 'repair' to the fuel line safe, though?

 

Over to you now Will. WE WANTS MOAR OLGA.

[explosive-cabbage]

Thank you all for ongoing patience, waiting for continuation on this thread.

 

Grab a pot of tea or wait till you have a plateful of dinner, this is a long post.

 

OLGA finally passed the MOT last week after much bollocksing around trying to get it below emissions limits.

 

..........

15th August...

As the car was eating batteries for fun and with the alternator light always on I came to the conclusion that the alternator must be knackered, so after searching all over the internet for a re-build kit for the alternator and considering fitting a 205/Volvo/Ford/Rover alternator I decided just to strip the thing down and find the problem.

 

Alternator off...

 

All identification has been worn off over time to leave me clueless

 

Except the brand name: ISKRA

 

It was not as difficult as I thought it would be, just nuts and screws and making sure you make note of where everything came from.

 

After stripping right back to the coils, I rubbed all contacts down with wet and dry.

 

Sprayed with WD40 and all back together again

 

And back on the car

 

Once back on,

The light was gone! Bingo! Problem solved.

 

 

Or so I thought....

 

A week later....

 

22nd August

 

Charging light back on! WTF...

 

After having a head scratch and a fiddle with the multimeter I removed the alternator positive and measured the voltage between the positive post on the alternator and the battery negative with the engine running - 16V !!! Its a good alternator this piece of info saved me £150 for a new alternator at least! Its running such high voltage because it is producing current with absolutely no load. We decided that it probably deserves a good new set of positive engine bay wires and luckily it was the day Joe was going for an MOT on his French Chod so I took the advantage of a free lift to meet MOT tester Jack Smith and go to Halfords. Knowing that we had plenty of wire kicking about in various heaps of Shite at home all I really needed was good new terminals at each end.

 

Joe's MOT

^Spot the dweeb!

Good to make myself known to Jack as then I wouldn't be sailing into a situation where I would have to convince a stranger to give me an MOT. Nice, laid back guy with a common-sense attitude. And a crazy guard dog.

Alas, he failed Joe's Shitroen for leaky suspension and an egg on the tyre and a completely buggered bottom ball joint.

 

After failing his MOT we called at Halfords on the way home and I spent a tenner on new wire terminals and a new battery post.

 

Once home I salvaged some wire out of a generic parts bin and made a new battery to alternator wire after a bit of instruction from Joe. Nice, for my first attempt at soldering in anger.

 

Kind of glad to be away from this kind of shite....

I have finally found fault in Russian car design. I wonder if this kind of rubbish conducted electric when it was new? God only knows how they got Yuri Gagarin into space with technology like this, they probably just sat him on a pile of Trabants and set fire to them.

 

After spending a couple more hours rescuing a Escort's wiring loom from inevitable death rotting itself to bits inside the cable sheath, I ended up with quite a respectable bit of handiwork...

 

I spent the next day fitting the two new* cables. Notice my shiny new battery?? 10 squids from the local scrappy

The red one goes to the alternator. The black one on the left goes to the starter motor. The black one on the right goes through a fuseable link to the ECU and wiring loom.

 

Across the N/S of the engine bay.

 

Round the front of the block, with nice home-made brackets.

 

Over the water pump

 

And down the back of the engine to the alternator and the starter, heat proofed past the exhaust.

 

 

PERFECT!

 

Took her for a bit of a spin to double check my handiwork: Any excuse

 

Has to be my favorite picture:

 

 

Admittedly getting her stuck down this bank at the bottom of the feild was not one of my greatest moments,..

 

She climbed the steep slope fine first time, but on reversing back down I ripped off all the wet grass and she didn't want to climb out a second time. I let the tyres down to about 15psi and crawled out no problem in low box

 

After that incident I played it safe and stuck to flat ground, didn't want to leave too much evidence of test driving round the feilds.

 

As one of my original set of tyres were almost worn out and I had a slit puncture on the shoulder of one that wouldn't seal whatever we tried, I went eBaying and found some more. I could always keep the 3 almost worn ones for spares or use in good weather in summer.

 

The first set were to pick up from Bradford, but I got the other set delivered from Blackburn.

1st set:

 

I put this set on my alloys now, saving the better set for fun in the snow

 

Second set: Alright for £100!

 

Not only that, but look what I found lurking in some long grass round the back of one of the sheds, amongst a pile of 205 STDT scrap:

4x Suzuki Jimmy steel wheels

 

and 1x Suzuki Vitara steel pepperpot

 

I couldn't believe my luck, I had been searching all over the web for a set of these fit-ass 'spoked steel' Jimmy wheels, and I found a set 20 yards from my workshop!

They fit straight onto the Lada Niva, with a slightly higher offset, and are much easier to come by than the Lada alloys, which are like rocking horse shit. I vaguely remember my Dad paying a couple quid at one of the local agricultural scrap auctions for these a few years ago, so immediately went inside and forced £10 into his hand for them.

 

My day was looking up! I went round the the shed and stuck them on, just to check how they looked:

 

A bit to be desired cosmetically but they fit fine, and will look shit hot when painted properly.

The tyres are all about worn out and cracked and mouldy from sitting in a nettle patch for years, but they all hold air well, Will look awesome with that new rubber on and all painted up for winter.

 

Now with the new tyres and working electrics, and everything else running smoothly I just had a few more bits to fix before the MOT.

 

New washer pump for front windscreen, aswell as cleaning front and rear washer bottles and checking electrics and aim

 

Replacing cross-member

 

Securing battery, on pieces of wood to absorb shocks and hold it off battery tray, as well as bringing it up a height where clamp could hold it down

 

Adding number plate, and rubbing down the contact points for headlights

 

Checking headlights

 

Bright enough for me!

 

.........

 

29th August

 

The final thing to do before entering her for an MOT was to install the interior.

 

As I have no rear seats it has to have no rear seat belts to pass an MOT, so out with them, and the broken rear quarter panel plastics.

 

Taping manky bits of foam onto the tomato-box plastic interior in a vain attempt to reduce road noise.

 

They were a fiddly ball-ache to put in.

 

Front console...

 

Followed by underlining...

 

Then carpets...

 

It took ages to fit the seats, as the seat on the drivers side was twisted, and runners didn't want to run. I ended up having to take them to bits and grease up with copper grease. The morning after they looked really good though

 

Large compulsory Lada toolkit

 

I gave her a good wash down and she shone!

 

Now off to Jack Smith's for my 1pm appointment...

 

Rear brakes looking good:

Front looking even better

 

Jack told me that his computer is as old as my car, I think mine is ageing better

 

All was well until we stuck the probe up her exhaust:

Pacman was telling us the car is buggered.

 

It passed on everything but the emissions.

 

All Jack could advise was to change the catalytic converter and the Lambda sensor and come back next week.

 

And then it got a whole lot worse.

On the way home, going up a steep hill in high revs and low box (this car felt massively underpowered), with the wipers going full chat in a downpour and the alternator working at its limits I heard a loud crack.

 

I had snapped the fanbelt. Not good news. I was 20 miles from home, with a totally illegal, rapidly overheating car, in a rain cloud.

 

Bear in mind this is a Lada, brilliant design until something goes wrong. The fan belt powers the fan, the alternator and the waterpump. Not only was I in fear of OMG HGF, I was scared if I turned it off on the flat or on an uphill the battery might be dead and I would be unable to re-start her. Not only that but the water was not circulating round the system and cooling, so basically I was in the shit up to my bow tie.

 

I stopped half a dozen times on the way home, on hills, for 20 or so minutes each time, to let the engine cool and to top her up with brack-ish puddle water.

 

Keeping at low revs in high gears, and plowing through as many cold puddles as I could find, I eventually made it home about 5pm, and OLGA really was not happy. Low on power, and running at between 100 and 130 celsius.

 

Of course the first job was to let her cool down, go inside and find a catalytic converter and a lambda sensor online for cheap monies.

After much searching I found a cheap cat brand new online for £40 and snapped up that bargain quickish. The Lambda sensors were harder, and the cheapest I could find was about £65.

Joe suggested I crawled under some of the cars kicking about and see if I can find any that look similar. Sure enough, by pure chance I found one under the Volvo with wires that matched up to the colours of a universal one for Ladas I had found online. After cutting the wires and much struggling to remove it with a ring spanner, we found it was a Bosch Lambda sensor, and one recommended for my car. What an unbelivable stroke of good luck!

 

After trying to remove the Lada Lambda sensor with a c spanner (a ring spanner did not fit over the connector) the only choice I was left with was to remove the manifold and stick it in a vice.

 

It is hard enough to remove this manifold what with the way the exhaust runs down through the suspension and the fact you have very little space to play with, and it was even more of a ball-ache in itself as 2 of the 4 nuts sheared off the studs in the manifold.

After getting it in a vice we managed to put a large socket on the Lambda and with a long bar turned out the sensor.

 

Using Joe's stud extractor grips and plenty of brute force I managed to remove one of the studs and shear the other off flush with the manifold face. The only option left to us was to weld a nut head onto the stud in the manifold and try to turn it, and hope for the best.

After a couple hours with the stick welder and a full box of M8 nuts me and Joe had no affect at all on this stud. We had heated an cooled this shoulder of the manifold so many times, and whacking it with the hammer in a vain attempt to dislodge a filling the stud and a chunk of the manifold shoulder all popped off onto the floor. This was good and bad news at the same time. We had destroyed the shoulder of the manifold and left a oddly shaped hole but had got the stud out.

With Joe's ingenuity and welding glory (practiced for weeks under his Samara) we decided to weld a nut to the manifold in place of the stud. It worked a marvel:

Tidied up a bit with a grinder and the Dremel you could barely notice our stud was slightly out of parallel with the others...

 

Next job was to solder the Lada connector to the Volvo lambda sensor.

 

Using 3rd hand information gleaned from a eBay page selling universal lambda sensors to fit Ladas, I worked out which colour Lada wire fits to which colour Volvo wire...

 

Nothing in life is simple. Whatever we did we could not get the solder to stick to the wires of the Bosch lambda sensor; so we ended up just connecting them with screw-type wire connectors and wrapping the whole lot up in tape, plastic cable wrap then bike inner tube. Looks messy, but in theory should work.

 

Old and new...

 

After greasing up the Lambda sensor with copper grease it screwed home into the newly-installed manifold absolutely no problem.

 

.........

 

8th September

 

After the arrival of a cheap new catalytic convertor from an unknown online company, it went on with little difficulty.

 

To fill my time before the MOT on the 8th I replaced the fanbelt with the original (to be replaced with a new one, ordered but not yet arrived) and fiddled about securing and weatherproofing some more of the engine electrics.

The crankshaft position sensor got a nice new boot made from the electrical protection in the door hinge of a retired 205, coated liberally with WD40.

 

And the oil pressure sensor make of something similar from the boot of my 205

 

The next day I took OLGA to the Jack Smith's for an emissions test, and it failed in spectacular fashion. 7 or 8 times more CO than the emissions maximum! It had gotten worse! How could this be?? I explained what I had done and he basically said I had had probably put the wrong Lambda sensor on for the car. He told me to go and find a garage that could read the ECU and try and find a Lada Lambda sensor.

He recommended a place in Keighley, and so I called there and they said they could get me one but it would be about £65. When they rang up to order this for me it turns out they were out of stock but the guy behind the counter (middle aged) was very helpful and pleasantly surprised to see a Niva still on the road. He gave me the Bosch part number for the Lambda sensor in question and told me to look it up online and see what I could find.

 

On the way home I also called at 5 or 6 different garages and a few of them had never heard of a Lada, let alone an ECU connector for a Lada! Some of the middle aged mechanics were wanking themselves silly at it's 80's plastic interior and the diff ratios but none could provide me with the goods. Various fuel additives were recommended and tricks of the trade told but few with much conviction. Mostly just scratching of heads and mutterings from the younger mechanics. Looks like I will have to go at this alone!

 

Once home I set a pot of tea going and started a internet marathon.

Over the next few hours I learned so much about different types of lambda sensors and how they work I could have given a university lecture on them. The part number the guy in Keighley gave me was helpful in tracking down expensive Bosch sensors online, and expensive wasn't what I was looking for. After hours of cross-referencing between websites and manufacturers it turns out that the Volvo sensors are exactly the same part number as the Lada ones, when referenced on some websites. They have the same number of wires, the same input/output voltage, the same thread size, everything; except the length of the wire running to them, as the lambda on the Volvo 850 is halfway back in the exhaust, and on the Lada is right in the manifold. Also I learned I had probably contaminated the Volvo sensor by getting copper grease into it whilst installing it.

 

Leaping with joy I escaped outside to remove the Volvo's second lambda, (it has one in front and one behind the cat in the exhaust, both identical) and stick it on my car. But no matter how much force I used and how well placed my ring spanner was, there was no way I was moving this lambda sensor. I was laid under a two and a half ton Volvo, using the bricks it was stood on as foot holds as I used the power in my legs and a straight back to pull on the spanner. I decided to give up before I ended up as flat as sliced ham.

 

Back inside I found a website called Walker selling cheap universal lambda sensors, and one for me was about £42. I bit the bullet and bought one.

 

.........

 

13th September

 

My shiny new lambda sensor arrived in the post and I crimped it onto the wires from the connector with ease and set off for a re-test that very afternoon.

 

On arrival Jack shoved the probe straight up my exhaust and told me within a minute it had been a wasted trip and I should go home.

 

It was no better than the week before. People were starting to question why I bother trying so hard passing an MOT on a car that was doomed anyway.

 

He told me to learn more about the ECU and injection system electrics and come back again when I have found the problem.

 

I went home, a bit demoralized but unwilling to give up.

 

I set about mining the wealth of information that is the internet.

I found some really interesting information.

 

Firstly, when referring to Lada Niva injection systems on discussion forums online, it is perfectly okay to call it a 'Lada Niva injection system'; but when referring to it outside the online forum community; ordering parts, talking to mechanics, searching search engines for specific parts ect etc, it is best to refer to it as a GM injection system. GM produced practically the whole of the injection system, wiring, ECU, sensors, software, and so on and sold the parts to Lada to fit to the Niva to bring it up to date with the modern (1996) emissions laws. So in fact my car isn't powered by Lada parts, it is powered by fairly off the shelf parts from the US. The only part that is not transferable between other cars is the ECU, for obvious reasons. That is good news. Obviously GM were a massive producer of a fairly primitive yet successful injection system, as parts from their range can be found in GM's, Dodge, Chrysler's, Fords, Opel's/Vauxhall's, Deawoo's, Volvo's, Suzuki's, and Lada's. And that is good news for me.

 

Secondly, though the ECU reader connector (called ALDL [Assembly Line Diagnostics Link], or more commonly OBD1) is as rare as rocking horse shit they are still available, approx £50 imported from the US. The software to turn raw data produced by the ECU into a useable digital dashboard program has been lost over the years and probably only exists somewhere in some mucky mechanics garage in Siberian Russia, out of all scope of the various western Lada enthusiasts. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and some wise spark in the Lada community answered a call by a diagnostics company for raw data and parameters to update the company software, and in exchange for his efforts he got hold of a copy of their completed software, relevant to the Lada Niva 1.7i. So now there is a peice of software online that can produce you a digital dashboard with about 20 different graphs and dials to show you what your car is doing and has done before. Snazzy.

Alas, all this is out of my reach, I don't have a laptop, and I don't need any digital dashboard, Fast and Furious Stylie.

The point I am getting to is that you don't need a fancy mega-pentium-processor to read what your car is doing. All you need is a broken paperclip.

Eh?? Read on....

 

Read the third, fourth and fifth paragraphs and all will be explained.

 

And here are the Error Codes:

Absolute gold dust.

 

For more reading pleasure go here:

http://www.ladaniva.co.uk/lada/niva_tbi.pdf

and here for the full range of Lada Niva PDF manuals...

http://www.ladaniva.co.uk/index.html#Manuals

 

For those of you who can't see it or can't read or whatever I will explain.

When your check engine light comes on, pull over and turn your engine off, then back to the ignition phase. Get a paperclip, bend it into a U shape and shove it in the appropriate contacts in your ALDL/OBD1 connector. This will produce a series of flashes, in groups of 3, relating to a certain number. That number is an error code, and if you look it up you can find out your problem, and the online community will usually be able to solve it with a bit of common sense and effort on your part. Flashing '12 12 12' basically means there is nothing wrong with your motor, and is just telling you there is no spark and everything else is okay. Anything in addition to '12 12 12' means there is something wrong.

 

So where does this leave me??

After this massive bombshell was dropped on my head I immediately went outside and stuck my paperclip in the connector. It took a few goes and a bit of practice to get this right and read it right, but it worked fine.

And gave me a '12 12 12 45 45 45'

Ignore the 12s. 45s:

''O2 sensor showed <0.250 volt for over 50 seconds whilst in closed loop with engine running over 1 minute and with throttle open over 2%''

Sounds complex. Fairly easy. I searched 'Lada Niva Code 45' on Google and it came up with a PDF, obviously a photocopied workshop manual. On pages 17 and 18 it makes reference to the fact that the ECU could be giving me a false error code 45 if the lambda sensor circuit is connected to some other voltage source.

 

I did a bit more reading up online and found that most replacement universal lambda sensors need to ground to earth through the wire to the ECU; rather than through the engine block like the ones they replace. So basically my Lambda sensor was not grounded properly, and needed another earth wire here:

 

The next two weeks were spent reading up and learning about all the silly mistakes and the money I could have saved from doing a bit more research into a field I was uncomfortable in: injection engine electrics.

 

There is very little physical progress to show for the intervening 2 weeks, as it was purely internet research and mental logging of a wealth of information available online.

.........

 

27th

Having rectified the fault in my original wiring of the lambda sensor, plus other faults which crept up on me including 13, 33 (both of which were safely put to bed with a bit of jiggery and pokery and good luck) I was ready for a re-test on the 27th September.

 

With a positive attitude and £5 worth of good locally made pork sausages to thank Jack Smith I set off one again for Barcroft MOT testing station at Crossroads, near Howarth.

 

Upon arrival I explained my progress and what I had learned over the intervening period.

 

We hooked the machine up, and once again it gave me a fail, and Jack told me to change the engine sensors, one at a time and see if the ECU was getting false readings from a sensor that was not showing up in a fault code. He suggested changing the coolant temperature sensor to start with, and to look for an emissions machine closer to home so I wouldn't have make a round trip to 40 miles for a re-test every time.

 

When I got home I rang Neil at Lada Parts UK and he put me a coolant temperature sensor in the post.

 

.......

 

4th October

I changed the coolant temperature sensor and rang my local garage at Threshfield, and Graham, the owner told me he would charge £5 to stick it on his emissions machine.

 

I went straight over there and got the same reading as the week before. It obviously wasn't the coolant temperature sensor at fault.

Graham has a great wealth of knowledge at fixing problems like this, and as he is a rallying enthusiast with a garage full of Corolla's and Quattro's, and has had years working on more modern injection cars aswell.

We unhooked the crankcase breather hose from the air intake and the CO readings dropped way down to just above the legal limit. This really excited me, as this small piece of practical knowledge had cut my emissions much more than anything I had changed so far. Basically, due to the pitted and worn out nature of the 4th cylinder bore, there was gas blowing past the piston rings and then back through the breather into the intake, causing massively high CO readings in the exhaust. He told me to vent the breather to the open air through a simple filter in a glass jar, and then come back and try again.

I explained to Graham the problems I had so far and told him how I had changed the catalytic converter for one bought online. He told me to check that the new cat was OE specification, if not it was pretty much useless.

 

When I got home I immediately checked online, and found the cat I had bought was not OE spec, so I changed it back to the original, which had a finer honeycomb and had obviously passed MOTs in the past.

The crap non OE cat:

 

The glass jar trick was a nice fabricating challenge for me after so many hours spent in front of the computer.

I cut a hole in the top of a jam jar and stuck the breather hose right to the bottom, surrounded by synthetic cloth and with holes in the top to vent to the atmosphere. I created a bracket onto the gearbox mount to hold the jar securely under the battery tray.

 

I had a few problems with the jar idea over the next week, namely getting dizzy because the CO venting from the holes in the jar would come through the vents into the interior as I was driving. Not good. Also the slight bit more of added pressure in the crankcase as it was forced to vent through the filter caused oil to leak profusely from round the rocker cover. These problems were quickly rectified by removing some of the filter material to reduce back-pressure and by tightening down the rocker cover another turn on each nut. The carbon monoxide venting problem was solved my inserting 3 little tubes into the vent holes in the jam jar lid and running them backwards under the body of the car so that gasses would be vented further back and not enter the cabin.

 

.........

 

11th October

 

I changed the coolant temperature sensor and gave Graham a ring at Threshfield. He told be to come over before lunch, and when I got there I showed him my handiwork and explained the developments I had made.

 

We stuck the car on the machine and with nothing more than a little apprehension at wasting this busy man's time she passed with flying colours!!!! (I mean it passed by 0.04% on the CO, and 3 parts in a million on hydrocarbon count)

 

Shaking his hand, almost violently, I immediately left for Jack Smith's Garage and turned up unannounced with a emissions pass sheet from Threshfield and £10 worth of sausages.

 

We stuck OLGA straight onto the emissions machine and with gentle persuasion of the foot pedal manged to bring her down below the legal maximums and pass the emissions. Excellent! We had to do a full re-test and Jack passed the car, no problems at all. Those headlights aimed to low were soon sorted with bits of paper torn out of a magazine and that fault with the O/S headlight main beam apparently happened on the way home ;)

I secretly think he wanted rid of me so passed her. I gave him his huge bag of sausages and his £55 well earned and set of home with some true Lada porno:

 

THANK GOD FOR THAT!

 

Celebratory Pint and Steak was well earnt.

 

In the time since my MOT pass a week ago I have had a great deal of enjoyment from my motor, and not having to cycle the 2 miles to work in the freezing cold at 7.30am being one of the massive benefits.

 

However, its a Lada, and the project is therefore ongoing.

The first fault I had was the brakes going all weird on me, leaking fluid from the O/S rear and needing a lot more force to push the pedal. Jack had noticed this coming on and warned me the best actions were to just replace the rear brake cylinders. So that was yesterday's project.

 

Fluid is obviously coming from somewhere...

 

Here?? Think so.

 

Nice and easy to remove.

Left hand - brake cylinder; right hand - handbrake cable. This picture is missing the bar between the shoes at the top.

 

All the gubbins removed, and removing the cylinders was as hard as 1,2,3. 1 union nut and 2 bolts securing it to the backplate.

 

New, about £7 each

 

Old and new.

 

Bare backplate.

 

New cylinder installed.

 

And all back together. Difficult to work out which order to do it all in, but once I had worked it out, I did the other side in about 4 minutes flat.

 

Cleaned the drums and the shoes with fairy liquid and water to remove any grease.

Then bled with the help of Joe.

Simples!

 

Well, now we are back up to date, it would be a shame not to give you an idea of the future. OLGA is going to need a new clutch (already bought) at some point in the not too distant future. Thrust bearing rattles when in neutral and she slips in 5th gear sometimes and when accelerating hard.

Also, she is going to need some serious preventative maintenance on the bodywork side, and possible a partial re-spray. The bottoms of the doors definately need a bit of attention before they get worse.

And of course, Ladas need constant love and attention to keep them in good order, so I will keep you all updated.

 

I am taking her to a Russian themed festival called 'Red Oktober' at Crich Tramway Village, near Matlock in Derbyshire this weekend.

I promise pictures of an array of weird Russian vehicles as well as Olga! Your humble narrator is going dressed as a Russian mechanic, complete with bear skin hat, mucky overalls and a canvas bag full of tools

Anyone else coming??

 

I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped with re-building OLGA. Your help has been invaluable.

Joe, and my parents.

Jack Smith

Neil @ Lada Parts UK

Graham from Threshfield Garage

Everyone online, on Autoshite and on the other forums

GadgetBoy

Baxter

etc

etc

 

Thank you all, its been a great achievement and I have derived a great deal of satisfaction from it. I hope to see you all sometime at an Autoshite meet

 

It has taken me about 8 hours to write this last post, is that a record?? Its now 4am, time for well earned sleeps methinks.

Night all, and happy Autoshiting!

[Rocket88]

Bloody epic write up, and a great tale of persistense in the face of adversity, fine job.

[holbeck]

Wow, great write up! that Lada has certainly put you through the wringer. Still I bet it makes it all the sweeter to have come out the other side.

[John F]

My ushanka is throroughly doffed in your direction, Will.

 

That's a tale of epic persistence... well done for getting there in the end!

[skattrd]

Great work and great write up, well done for persevering with it.

You can now enjoy the dry warmth going to and from work.

[Morgan84]

It passed with a visible leak from the rear brake back plate ?

[KruJoe]

accelerating hard

Fuggin LOL!

 

Not a bad write-up bruv - it needed a PC health warning - my laptop ground to a halt trying to view that post!

 

Beware the greengrocers' apostrophes!

There's more about that problem in this book; I'm sure there's a copy of it around here somewhere:

 

 

I put the last piece in the jigsaw to make Olga officially properly road legal!

 

 

(I glued the tax disc holder back together )

 

 

A quick spray of Windolene in preparation for the the Autoshite dealership sticker I donated, and she's ready for the weekend!

[barefoot]

Holy Faaaark!

[Shep Shepherd]

^

Seconded!

[daverapid]

Fantastic!

 

PM sent

[blackburied]

Was Olga being driven through Skipton on Sunday evening?

 

I was sat in the Wooly Sheep by the window when I noticed a white flash with a red stripe.

[Rod/b]

Only just caught up on the epic megapost from the other week, and glad that i did! What a superb effort, well done.

[explosive-cabbage]

blackburied wrote:

Was Olga being driven through Skipton on Sunday evening?

I was sat in the Wooly Sheep by the window when I noticed a white flash with a red stripe.

 

Yeh that was her! I had just been to see Skyfall at Plaza Cinema, its brilliant.

 

Good choice of pub, what were you drinking? Taylors Landlord?

[blackburied]

blackburied wrote:

Was Olga being driven through Skipton on Sunday evening?

I was sat in the Wooly Sheep by the window when I noticed a white flash with a red stripe.

 

Yeh that was her! I had just been to see Skyfall at Plaza Cinema, its brilliant.

 

Good choice of pub, what were you drinking? Taylors Landlord?

 

Looking good I must say, Nearly shouted out "Olga!" but then realised the missus, and my Brother n his might wonder what the hell I'm on about getting excited over a Lada!

 

Started on Landlord then moved onto BoltMaker(Best). One of my favourite brewers is TT with it being local.

[explosive-cabbage]

black buried said:

Started on Landlord then moved onto BoltMaker(Best). One of my favourite brewers is TT with it being local.

 

You Sir, have good taste.

Although I have never had any of The Boltmaker's beers, I read about that pub and microbrewery so much in the local Camra mag, and I have never been. Must give it a try sometime.