It's been quite a while since I posted some updates.
I still haven't found new oem-style 3-point seatbelts, but that's been a pretty low priority compared to other challenges & I've got some 4-point harnesses to make due with.
Some fun tidbits:
I found that one of the 1756 engines I have is a bit of an odd duck. The block is marked 132A1 040.6 and is apparently one of the last 1756 blocks and features the same 30mm nose as the later 2L engines.
Full details over on Mirafiora.
I was a little disappointed when I got some new motor mounts that were supposed to be the "low" option to give a little extra hood clearance only to find they were 5mm taller than the old ones I pulled out. An old thread on
Mirafiora recommended some Volvo 240 mounts. If you want to give this a try, you need two right-hand mounts; I got the Meyle 5140274111 from IMC, should cost between $10-15 each and they're about 47mm tall (. You will need to remove a nub from one side.
Old vs New "low"
New "low" vs New Volvo/Meyle mounts
On the rear-end:
I can report that the lada trailing arms fit/work just fine. When I swapped rear axles from the later-style to the early-style, I used a full set of
performance arms with an adjustable panhard bar from ladamoscow.com. The panhard bar had to be shortened, but it's a quick job if you have a lathe & welder.
I also got a
complete rear diff with a 4.10:1 ratio (couldn't decide between the quick 4.3 and the high-way friendly 3.9) fitted with a Torsen-style LSD.
Springs were from IAP, shocks from VAS, and bearings and seals from AR.
A heads up, You can probably use the bearing retainers from the Lada axles, but the bearings and seals are not interchangeable. The rear axles are similar, but beyond the diff & linkage mounts, everything is a bit different.
On the front suspension/steering front:
The lada 2101 front hubs and bearings are a great way to freshen up the front end. My hubs were pretty corroded and the threads for the lug bolts were also pretty corroded, so the new hubs mean that the rotors will have a nice flat surface and the are no questions about a wheel coming off. Everything left & right is the same, except the castle-nut, they're left & right hand threaded.
The Ladas use larger ball-joints so you can use the steering box, but you'll have to swap the pitman arm. I broke a couple pullers trying to remove the pitman arm from a Fiat box. The Fiat boxes use 2 roller bearings in the body of the housing and a 3rd in the cap, while the Lada boxes use a bushing in the bottom and no additional support in the cap (it looks like everyone is selling the Lada style boxes now. I haven't had any luck finding replacement roller-bearings to properly rebuild the original style steering box. Ladapower.com added a
proper milled steering arm puller to their catalog for me and while it bent, it was the only one that didn't break after buying a couple of lesser quality (cheaply cast) via Amazon.
Oem Fiat-style cap on left, sold-everywhere Lada-style steering box cap on the right.
On the tool front, Ladapower has a bunch of gems, but
the front bushing removal kit takes the cake. I've got a press, but the tool pulls the bushings without any risk of bending the arms. Also, I got a number of front bushings from different sellers that I really wasn't happy with the fit/quality, but
the Tadem ones i got from Ladapower were significantly nicer and a much better fit than the Italian made Akron bushings. The Akron upper bushings were about 1mm smaller diameter and thus were loose/rattling in the control arms. I'm not sure if the metal housing is supposed to expand when tightened up, but that seemed extreme.
Picture (Akron on left, Tadem on right)
I got lucky on the steering damper front, neither of my idlers were frozen so I cleaned them up and re-sealed on. Up-top, it's just a couple o-rings. I used 3x59 o-rings, but I think a bit narrower o-ring would be better, eg. 2.5x60x65? At the bottom, I knocked out the original seal, scraped away the lip with a deburring tool and fitted a Honda oil seal (part#90754-147-003, 19X30.5X7mm). The shaft is about 20mm, but if you sand down any ridges and polish it, it ends up being a bit less and the seal has plenty of give.
Leaving out a lot of tedious restoration & refurbishment work that's just part of the usual grind.
