To ensure that the locking mechanism lasts for a long time, use the following rules:

1. It is necessary to switch the transfer case when the Niva does not move.
2. The differential can also be engaged while the vehicle is moving.
3. To ensure effective and long work device, it is advisable for the Niva driver to turn on the lock from time to time. Once a week in winter period quite enough.

Where is the lever responsible for switching located? Pay attention to the area between the wings located in front, there are 2 levers there. One makes it possible to change gears at the gearbox, the other successfully controls the transfer case.

The basis transfer case consists of a gearbox, which includes 2 stages. The control lever comes directly from it, you can move it forward and backward - this is how the gear is changed on the Niva. The direction of movement of the lever to the left and right allows you to activate the differential lock and vice versa to disable it.

Why is downshift needed?

It is difficult to imagine a transfer case without the main functional component - a reduction gearbox. Positioning the lever in the rear direction reduces the transfer case value to 1.2.

By fixing the lever at the front, the gear ratio can be increased to 2.1. The lever moved to the neutral position indicates gear ratio 0.

To use the lock installed on the Niva effectively, use the following recommendations from experts:

1. Moving on road surface good quality, install the front transfer handle at the front and the rear handle at the rear.
2. The front handle is moved back if the road becomes slippery. Once the slippery area has been passed, switch the levers to normal mode.
3. If the Niva is stopped, the lock may not engage when the clutch is depressed. This occurs due to the alignment of the teeth with the gear teeth. What should you do in this case? Moving as if on a turn, engage the lock. The differential will turn and the gear teeth will come closer to the teeth. If switching off is difficult, do it while the vehicle is moving, keeping minimum speed and pressing the clutch.

How the cross-axle differential lock works on a Niva is clearly shown in the video:

Disputes in forums and smoking rooms do not subside: is it necessary to block the center differential on slippery roads? winter roads? All-wheel drive fans have long ago split into two camps and are defending their rightness until they are hoarse. Some people foam at the mouth and prove that blocking center differential helps to hold icy asphalt, others are ready to give up their teeth, which only gets in the way.

To put an end to the dispute, we loaded two dozen cones and a Datron measuring complex into the Niva and went to the snow-covered site of the VAZ Scientific and Technical Center test site.

All races are carried out on a uniform surface, at an air temperature of minus 9-10 degrees. Tires - old winter studless "Michelin" size 175/80R16.

Let's start with acceleration on a uniform slippery surface. The task is to get underway and pick up speed as quickly as possible. Distance - 50 m. Starting and accelerating in first or second are most indicative - with the transition to high gears the wheels slip much less. We repeat several accelerations with and without blocking.

A miracle, of course, did not happen: the time was almost the same. In such a situation, blocking does not help. If so, why include it? Another thing is if the asphalt alternates with spots of snow and ice - then it is better to use blocking.

Movement in a turn. We rolled out a circle in the snow until it shined. The diameter was made so that the steering wheel was turned one turn from the middle position. Thus, the front wheels turned out to be at a fairly large angle, but when adjusting the trajectory, it was still possible to tighten the steering wheel. Now we are setting up a circular corridor of cones: the inner ones are placed with a diameter of 18.5 m, the outer ones are 24.5 m in diameter - so that the passage width is 3 m.

To begin with, I roll in, on the verge of sliding, again switching the transfer case lever. I hold the gas in both cases: without blocking, the car tends to slide outward with the wheels of the front axle. With a locked differential I protect from skidding rear axle.

And the instruments say that the lap time in the unlocked state is not much, but less than with the lock. average speed- 14.8 km/h versus 14.2. The difference seems small, almost 4%. And yet it becomes clear that a car with a locked differential will slip at a lower speed than without it. And sliding for most drivers is tantamount to loss of control.

Now I repeat the exercise, but with increasing speed, moving into sliding. The conditions are the same - keep the car in a three-meter corridor, that is, do not let it go into a deep skid.

Without locking, the steering wheel has to be turned at a greater angle than would be required on dry asphalt, that is, almost all the way. Playing with the gas a little, causing slippage and demolition of the front end, I force the Niva to move not along the minimum radius, but along a larger one, along the required trajectory. With certain skills, this is quite simple: add gas - increase the radius of the trajectory, reset - decrease it.

With a lock, on the contrary, the steering wheel needs to be slightly “straightened”, since the skidding of the rear axle itself turns the car. But this drift must be kept in the initial phase, not allowing it to develop. Otherwise, the all-wheel drive will immediately sweep away the outer radius chips with its “tail”. According to subjective feelings, in this mode the speed is the highest, but what do the instruments show?

The fastest option is still the unlocked option, although in both transmission modes the speeds are almost the same.

The conclusion is that even in the initial phases of sliding, blocking does not help, although the difference in maximum speeds with and without blocking becomes noticeably smaller than when rolling in.

Short "snake". We place the cones with a pitch of 7.5 m, a round trip with a turn at a minimum radius. The total length of the distance is 120 m. Naturally, you have to drive without slipping - otherwise you won’t hit the target. Without blocking, the car, as before, strives to drive straight both when entering a turn and on an arc. But with the blocking, the situation has changed somewhat - when entering a turn, the car “accepts” the maneuver reluctantly, strives to go straight, and when moving in an arc, it tends to slide into a skid.

The result is that a race without blocking, which does not turn into a slide, turns out to be about 4% faster.

And now the “snake” is longer. We increase the distance between the cones to 15 m, eliminating the turn. The “track” turned out to be smoother and faster. Soft turns allowed the steering wheel to be turned at a smaller angle. The fastest result here, as on the short “snake”, is achieved on the verge of sliding. The speed has increased noticeably, but the difference between “with a block” and “without” has decreased by almost half - only 2%. Natural pattern - than smoother turns, the less the impact of blocking.

Ice dancing on the Niva is best performed with the blocking switched on. In this mode, it glides more predictably. The front wheels fit into a turn only when the gas is released, although less willingly than when the lock is off. But it is possible to “twist” the rear axle in a skid only with the differential locked. In fact, the fastest way would be to spin the car before entering the turn, placing it sideways - and then set the radius that way. With the lock turned off, it is, alas, almost impossible to cause a “correcting” skid. However, the roads common use It’s not a training ground and it’s not appropriate to meddle with them with such manners.

When braking by skidding, the position of the locking lever is indifferent - all four wheels still slide. If you brake “on the edge,” then on mixed surfaces a locked differential does a disservice. As soon as one of the wheels hits a more slippery section of the road, it instantly skids. The other, connected to it through the cross-axle differential, tries to rotate twice as fast - the locking is turned on and the “extra” torque cannot go to the other axle. Due to the heterogeneous coating, the car begins to turn around.

Summary. A locked differential reduces the speed of rolling in on slippery turns. The speed at which the car begins to slip on the road when the lock is engaged is below. The harmfulness of blocking depends on the steepness of turns and the coefficient of adhesion of the wheels to the road. The sharper the turns and the more slippery surface- the sooner an all-wheel drive vehicle with a locked differential will lose control. In practice, this means that on ice your car will suddenly refuse to turn - it will go straight. Or, already on the turning arc, with a slight addition of gas, it will turn across the road, or even completely backwards.

Unfortunately, the lock is not able to help with starting and increase the efficiency of acceleration. Unless, of course, the road has a uniform surface, and not a mosaic of islands of ice, snow and clean asphalt. In addition, locking when braking can help you lose control of the car.

And for those who like to drive on the ice of a frozen lake, it is better to lock the differential. Then the car behaves more clearly and unambiguously when sliding.

General conclusion: locking the center differential increases the vehicle's cross-country ability and impairs handling on slippery roads.

It quite often happens that a car enthusiast cannot engage the wheel locking on a Niva, which is in good working order, the first time. It’s important to say right away that everything is fine with the car’s wheel locking mechanism. in perfect order. Why does it happen that a working mechanism cannot be turned on the first time? The fact is that implementing a blocking mechanism requires some skill and certain knowledge. So, in the framework of this article, which will certainly intrigue Niva owners, we will tell you how to enable the lock on this car.
In essence, the mechanisms for engaging the gear and locking the wheels of a car are actually similar processes. At the same time, their mechanisms differ radically. As it should be, locking the car's wheels while parked is a completely useless task. After all, the teeth and grooves on the locking clutch coincide very, very rarely. In other words, the lock does not cut into standing car due to the fact that the teeth of the coupling, being opposite the teeth of the crown, simply rest against them, in other words, the coupling in an obvious way can't turn around.

Thus, if you still managed to turn on the lock when the car is stationary, then you are, apparently, a lucky lucky person or a lucky lucky person. Such coincidences happen, as they say, one in a million. To engage the gear, the clutch is engaged, the slightest pressure on which leads to the fact that the tooth of the rotating shaft easily fits into the groove, which is completely motionless. And in the wheel locking mechanism of a car, the clutch and the output shaft, which has a ring gear, are very firmly connected together using satellites.

Therefore, to enable wheel locking on a Niva car, you first need to start and warm up the engine well. Next you need to engage first gear and start driving. Straight-line movement on a normal hard surface, for example, on asphalt, will not result in wheel locking. This event is determined by the fact that both the rear and front wheels make the same distance, without in any way forcing the satellites to spin.

Therefore, it is necessary to continue moving on low speed, starting to turn the steering wheel of the car left and right and at the same time leaning on the handle, which turns on the wheel lock. IN in this case The rear and front wheels of a car travel different paths. And this, in turn, will force the satellites to spin. It must be recalled that the output shaft is connected to the coupling through satellites. In this way, the output shaft will rotate in relation to the coupling, and the tooth will effortlessly fit into its own groove. Only in this case will the Niva wheel lock be activated.

To turn off the wheel lock on a Niva, as well as to turn it on, you need to perform a number of certain actions. The following should be taken into account: movement with the lock engaged leads to the fact that the teeth of the output shaft are compressed quite tightly in the coupling. This happens due to the fact that the wheels of the car rotate asynchronously. Thus, the driver is faced with the task of greatly weakening the compression of the teeth in the grooves. To do this, shake the steering wheel and turn on reverse gear. Add to this a little patience, the handle will certainly give in and the car’s wheel lock will turn off!

So, as part of this material, we talked about how to enable blocking on the Niva. The competent advice given in this article, the development of these tips specifically in practice, and also certain abilities in driving a car will allow you to turn on the lock without effort, bringing this skill to complete automaticity! Have a good and safe journey!

All SUVs are different regular cars the fact that such cars can overcome any obstacle on the road, even when the road is completely absent. These cars received this feature due to the presence in them all-wheel drive, which can be either permanent or pluggable.

All-wheel drive is driven by differentials. Chevrolet Niva also has one.

What is the purpose of blocking?

This mechanism contains shafts and gears. The differential is intended to distribute torque from the engine to the wheels. In Niva, the main driving wheels are the rear ones. With the help of a differential, the wheels can spin with at different speeds , for example, when cornering. In this case, one wheel travels a small radius, and the other – a large one. If there were no differential, the wheels would begin to slip, which would cause increased wear rubber.

Lever location

When driving on a straight road, the thrust from the engine is distributed evenly between the wheels. If one wheel starts to slip, for example on ice, then the differential transfers more force from the engine to it. This mechanism is mainly installed on the drive axle. Niva has it at:

1. Rear and front axles.
2. Between the axles (central). Located between the gearbox and axles.

Video about how the cross-axle differential lock works on a Niva Chevrolet

Enabling the differential lock

There is an opportunity on the Niva Chevrolet engage all three differentials simultaneously. Thanks to this, the vehicle’s cross-country ability increases several times when driving off-road.

Forced locking means that the drive wheels are combined with each other, as a result of which they can rotate at the same speed. Thanks to the blocking, the traction force of the engine will be used to the maximum and transmitted to the wheels.

As already mentioned, the differential assembly consists of shafts and gears. Using them in automatic mode traction force is distributed between the drive wheels. The differential is locked using a blocker (clutch). In this case, when the driver turns on forced blocking, then the wheels “become” connected to each other. This helps ensure that they rotate evenly.

Differential assembly

If the center lock is forcibly engaged, then the front ones are also rigidly connected at once, which guarantees an even distribution of traction to all four wheels. Thus, the vehicle's cross-country ability will be increased several times, which makes the Chevrolet Niva a real SUV.

Applying a lock

Not all cars are equipped with blockers, and therefore they will be vulnerable off-road. Chevrolet in this regard is unique car, which can move both with one drive and with all-wheel drive, which allows him to feel confident even on mountain roads.

To engage the differential lock, pull the lever all the way to the left.

Forced blocking should be enabled in the following cases:

1. When overcoming difficult sections of the route. In this case, the blocking should be turned on in advance, even before leaving for such an area.
2. On steep climbs or slopes when wheel slip is possible.
3. When driving on sand.
4. When driving on snow or ice.

Disable blocking

When Niva will move around ordinary road with a smooth surface, then it does not need to lock all wheels. They will adhere normally to the surface and not slip, since the traction force from the engine will be distributed evenly over them. For this reason, when the car is moving on a good road where the wheels will not slip, the use of a differential will not be required.

Rules for using differential

These include:

1. Switching the transfer case should only be done when the car is not moving.
2. You can also engage the differential while the vehicle is moving.
3. Go to downshift possible while the car is moving.
4. To ensure long and uninterrupted operation differential, you need to turn it on periodically, especially in winter time. This should be done once every 7 days.

Shift lever location

Inside the Niva Chevrolet There are two levers between the front seats. Using one of them you can change gears in the gearbox, and using the other you can control the transfer case.

Differential shift lever

The transfer case is based on a gearbox consisting of two stages. The control lever comes out of it into the cabin. He can move forward or backward. At the same time, it switches on/off downshift. If the lever is moved left or right, it can turn the differential lock on/off.

Gear shift and transfer case diagram

Downshift: what does it give?

The main component of the transfer case is the reduction gear. If the control lever is in the rear position, the number of transfer cases decreases and amounts to 1.2 . When the lever is in the forward position, the gear ratio increases. It will already be 2.1 . When the lever is in neutral position, then the gear ratio is 0 .

The differential is an integral part of the all-wheel drive mechanism in any car. It is recommended to use it only when the car is moving off-road.

Video about the operation of the gearbox and the rules for using the Niva Chevrolet differential