Niva Resource: Ford diff into a Lada housing

Ford diff into a Lada housing.

There are many routes you can go with the rear axle on the Lada (Saloon).

The obvious one here is using MkI/II Escort (English) axle parts. The design of the axles are very close. They both come in a front loading carrier, and both have the same bolt paterns, BUT the Escort one does differ in three ways:

Firstly, the diff will bolt straight to the lada axle but you have to use a 3mm spacer plate to get the half shafts to line up properly. This sits between the diff and axle casing.

Secondly, the crownwheel is slightly larger and fouls the casing slightly. Now to solve this is simple, a angle grinder will do! Remove some of the metal from the casing from the problem area.

Thirdly, the halfshafts are different by a little. They fit in OK, they have a 'little' bit of play in them, I put a shaft into a diff I have and tryed it tonight to see exactly how much this is and it was after 10mins of fidderling I see there is nothing to worry about. There are 5-6 ladas here which run this setup and have never had a problem so I say dont worry about this.

The prop shaft is Lada compatible if you get the right one, I dont know what model exactly they are off but you have a 1/3 chance.

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"Ford LSD together with a Ford CWP can be made to fit. The Ford diff' more or less matches a Lada back axle casing, but requires a 6mm (1/4") spacer ring to align the diff' with the drive shafts. The casing then requires quite a lot of work with a grinder for everything to clear. The splines on the Lada drive shafts are a good, but not perfect fit into the Ford diff'. Occasionally they can fail." Martin Shaw

"The Salisbury LSD more or less fits into the standard Lada rear axle casing. You need to fit a 3mm spacer ring to the front of the housing to get the right alignment on the half-shafts. The spacer should be drilled to suit the mounting holes on the Salisbury and, after fitting, the holes tapped to accept an M8 bolt.

Alternatively, prior to fitting, the holes can be drilled out at 8mm and countersunk on the reverse to accept a countersunk setscrew which is spotwelded in place. The latter is probably a better solution, but needs a bit of accurate welding and grinding to ensure a flat face to mate to the original casing.

You also need to grind the interior of the casing to clear the diff', which is slightly bulkier than the Lada item. It fouls slightly on the sides of the housing, and you can either carefully tap it out, or just cut slots and weld them over. You need to choose the smallest Salisbury nose flange, which is a straight fit on to the Lada propshaft flange." Martin Shaw

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