Race Engine Forum UK

Its not really a silly question but I can see where the confusion comes from. If you study the pictures of inside the bell housing again you'll see at around 10 O'clock there is the old fulcrum point for the Fiat 131/cable setup which indeed when operated by a cable pulls the arm towards the cluch assemby,thus stroking the fingers on the pressure plate. If you move this fulcrum point to the 5 O'clock position the action is reversed,the hydraulic slave cylinder pushes the arm away from clutch assembly but moves the release bearing on the usual plain forwards into the springs of the pressure plate.This is basically the same setup used on all Lada's 2101-2105. Apparently Lada only made the clutch hydraulic so the cables wouldn't freeze in places like Siberia and Scandanavia.I've only done this conversion because I know from experience how unreliable Cables can be on old cars and refuse to delete it

I

Ahhh, I did read that you'd said "I also moved the fulcrum point for the push action and simply left the other in situ as it wasn't interfering with anything" but the penny hadn't dropped!

Thanks for the explanation. And the great photos, really interesting project

Richard

Hello
Very quick update while she watches Emmerdale farm
Been Lashing on, not had much time to tap away at the keyboard,I find not much gets done if you do that all day!! Anyway while the Wife is indulging herself in some gossip mags, it Gives me time to go in the shed and get on.
I've had a trial fit of my engine..not good doesn't sit where I expected it to and after much adjusting and hacking/re fabricating the mounts finally I'm happy with where its sitting,abeit it being a little skew wiff. This engine was a cheap so called rebuilt lump i purchased off an internet auction site, I have my doubts ?. I dressed it up and It looks Ok?? however due to the quality of the rest of the car I'm starting to think that maybe something a little more fruity Is called for, this engine just doesn't sit right with me (Guy expect a call in the morning :))
The Front suspension turned into a complete re engineering job,lots of guess work involved here. The front suspension has been lowered about 7 inches. I discovered that the Geometry doesn't lend well to this.I've raised the lower arm pick up points 20mm higher up by adding some 30X30mm solid bar into my modified front crossmember this should solve the weak points which has been highlighted to me. I've also made it so the bolts can be easily removed,so you can alter camber by being able to add/remove washers easier. I like to make things so I decided to also make a kind of anti dive/double roll bar clamp based on what I've seen and used on some Ford setups in the past works well on them,so no reason why it shouldn't work here.
Next job is to look at some plumbing,and make a header and coolant swirl pot :)

Hi Ian;

Nice work there...you are getting closer!

I have used similar double anti roll bar-setup for years now, and it works fine. Makes lots of difference even with stiff suspension! My version is mounted on top of the OE one and it's clamped on with hydraulic pipe clamps.
Only winter time is when I remove it, makes it understeer too much.

Tommi

Re: your phone call this morning Ian, I don't see any reason why you can't you shift a few things around here and go sidedrafts.

Enlighten me please!

G

Guy
It is a possibility especially as I'd much prefer to keep the block mounted distributor and with the "waffle" IDF manifold this can't be done. I don't want to if I can at all avoid it undo any work I've already done. I've drilled holes and made brackets and supports which are intergral to other parts of the car and would therefore be an absolute pain to change and make a mess of a very neat carefully thought out installation. I need you to be aware at the great lengths I've gone to make this car as flawless as possible and I don't want you thinking I'm awkward when I ask for certain things...we need to try where possible to taylor make an engine within reason to fit this Lada.
I've studied the video's and comments with regards to Miro's 131 engine,One thing I was wondering was why did he opt for Idf's and a cam mounted distributor? surely he has ample room in the 131 for side draughts? The engine itself looks phenomenal not to mention the soundtrack it generates I'm definatley sold on it.I hope the Lada axle can cope with that sort of power.

A GC ENGINE IN PREP NOW FOR THIS CAR!

FEATURE TO FOLLOW

GC

Quite a lot been going on with the Build of the Lada over the last couple months, the most significant of which is a certain Mr Guy Croft, which some of you may of heard of has been commissioned to build stage III engine for it. You can follow the build thread in the "Road" section of this forum.

So this new engine build has by no means simplified it from my point of view, It's actually meant I've had to undo quite a lot of work i've already done. I've removed my freshened up Fiat twin cam and sold off the bike carb conversion and various parts which are not going to be needed and we've had to strip it as well as another 2.0 engine to get enough core parts to actually be able do the build. It's also become apparent upon visiting Guy's works (although Guy says otherwise) that some things at my end can be done to an even better standard,Its amazing to see all the detail lying around on benches and shelves in his place. Its compelled me to ramp my already steady aye for detail and quality up another notch on certain auxiliary components. For example I'd built 3 big wing sumps until I'd got one that incorporates all the latest design revisions and looks like a factory item. I also want to keep the Fiat 131 Sport Bosch ignition system so I've had a bespoke offset IDF Inlet manifold made by the Bogg Brothers which again incorporates some design revisions which Guy has pointed out,very interested to see how this performs and what Guy thinks of it when I deliver it to him in the next week or 2.

I've also started and almost completed all the rear suspension and Axle restoration and modification. I've tried to add reliability by removing as many Russian made components and swapping them with German Mastersport Items were possible,This may sound silly but due to the obvious quality difference and relative in expense it seemed false economy not to do so. I did have a bit of a struggle getting the crown wheel and pinion meshing correctly, it actually looked to me like the crownwheel wasn't conical and no matter what I did couldn't get a good contact pattern and kept experiencing tight spots. So having basically given up after spending 10 hours on it one saturday I went off and dumped it all in a box to Fostek Engineering, where the problem was quickly traced to burrs left on the teeth by the gear cutting/manufacturing,nothing that 30-40 miles of gentle bedding in wouldn't cure said them........phew I hate working on diffs you need to be able to use black magic to get them set up!!

The rest of the axle has been stripped cleaned and powder coated and Fiat 124 Superflex bushes fitted. I've even replaced both half shafts with new ones.......again from Germany only reason I did this was because I'd forgotten to mark up which side they came from and if they are put back in the wrong way around are very likely to snap! and for anyone who's never experienced snapped half shafts getting them out is like trying to feed spaghetti up a cats arse,Impossible!! you often have to cut the axle casing up to get the snapped bit out as it always snaps at the diff, don't want the worry for the sake of £60 each new.

Next job is to clean the underside and get some black stone chip lashed on....think that's a job for Jackie,he loves poor jobs :)

FANTASTIC WORKMANSHIP IAN IN SUCH CRAMPED CONDITIONS.

THIS IS BRITISH DIY AT ITS BEST!


GC

Hi Ian,

Nice to see all those parts coming together, and a very good standard of building. It does surprise me though that you're keeping the original drum brakes at the rear. Given all the mods and that lovely new engine I would have expected a conversion to discs there which would be easy enough. Any particular reason why you're sticking with the drums?

regards
Tom

Tom

I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible and don't really have the time to engineer a rear disc brake set up, however based on experiences on other similar modified retro/classic cars Drum brakes on the rear will be ample. Also Lotus didn't see fit to modifiy them on their version so If they're good enough for lotus they're good enough for me,plus I can't get enough of the alloy finned drums they look so good!

Fair enough. It's just I assumed you'd bolt on a 124 of 125 disc setup. But you're right; if the drums are fine and look good, then keep them.

regards
Tom

hey, don't knock drum brakes - they do give a very nice fly-off handbrake turn....

esp if you servo the rear brake line..

G

And remember that drum brakes are very powerful because they are self enhancement-type, so light pressure gives you pretty strong braking power.
Those drums are really oversized for a car that weighs under a ton. You have an ALB valve there to control rear braking pressure.
Rear brakes get small pressure when braking, otherwise they would lock up the rear wheels immeadiately even in dry tarmac.

Only thing I would improve in Lada brakes would be bit a bigger brake servo, so that you don't have use 40-50 kg pedal effort to brake real hard. But these cars aren't for faintest guys anyway.

Otherwise nice work Ian!

I prefer the Fred Dibnah Term the best "Back street mechanicing" sadly as most of us know,its a dying art.