jfrazar

Paul, Your comment about the Jalpa vs. Urraco is spot on. I have owned 3 older lambo's all at the same time for a 5yr run. The Urraco was light, nimble, fun to drive - really a great great car. Super Super easy to work on and very logical. My Countach was big, wide and a very nice drive - I always laugh at the magazine articles that make it sound so ruff and unbearable. Very exciting car. The Jalpa was blaaah. The car never did it for me. It almost was trying to be a compromise between the Countach and Urraco. Your comment about the 3.5 vs. 3.0 I can confirm that the Urraco motor was much better and the Jalpa motor was modified to make it more powerful with less than good results. When I had my Jalpa motor apart and saw the spacer plate between the head and block I was not very impressed. The cyl heads are crap, big heavy things, piss poor design. Regarding the timing belt on the Urraco - Do not rely on the spring in the belt tensioner to set your belt tension you need to adjust this by feel and you can change the belts with the motor in the car. My Verdict is Urraco yes, Jalpa hell no. - 308 much better car for same money. I worked on a local guys 512 last month and I can tell you Countach Vs. 512 - Countach ALL DAY LONG. If anyone knows of one I would be interested. Cell 912-667-1704 If any of you need older lambo work in the south I just bought a 10,000 sq ft. 20 bay shop in Savannah, In the final stages of getting it set up. My techs are really good and very reasonable. Joe Frazar

For the most part yes, parts can be a pain or just expensive. I loved mine and it was a total driver. It was one of the early P250's I took the car on a trip believe it or not and my wife really did not complain at all. One day I will get back on the lambo bus. Currently a garage full of Ferrari's. Joe

I miss the hell out of mine and would consider another. My fav of all that I had - I know that is hard to believe but true. Joe Frazar

I had a factory G cover on my Jalpa - perfect.

You took the words right out of my mouth, Good offer = sell the car. Sold - car is going to Switzerland. Don't know what I want next. Every once in a while I just get the urge to clean out the garage and start over. BTW. The new owner did not want the wheels - I just put them on ebay. Joe Frazar

You need to see the other ones of the car on the road. It sounds so good! Search Urraco Savannah Joe Frazar

Sorry for long delay, in replying. You need to check the bearing for the cam drive chains at the bottom of the timing cover by the oil pump. This is my first guess. - Some questions for you? 1. Have you lost compression on any of the cyl? 2. Have you removed the Water Pump/Dissy Drive belt and turned the water pump shaft to check for a failed bearing? 3. Have you Done a mechanical oil preasure check? Is the oil preasure much lower than before or no change? (Sometimes you can have a failed rod bearing and still have oil preasure.) 4. Does the noise come from the timing chain area. You can remove the lower timing cover with the engine in the car and have a look. Lots of little nuts and bolts in this area that might have failed or come lose. A note to some of your comments. Jalpa motors do not have cam bearings they ride in machined heads. The rod bearings are the bearings that are at the end of the connecting rod around the crankshaft. PM for my cell number if you want to discuss. Joe Frazar

Send him a pm, I don't think you need to worry. I know the shipping companies are slammed right now. Jfrazar

The special tool is a very narrow socket to get the head bolt nuts off on the far ends of the head. Take a standard 17mm socket and grind it down. (see Pic) No special tools other than that. I loaded some pics for you of me putting the motor back together. (The Carreaper is in one of the shots) The heads I did have done by Mike @ evans. I did not know they would sell the stainless valves. Btw. The valve job is a pain. That does require special tools. (they can be made) It sounds like you lost a rod bearing. Did the machine shop rework your rods? Did they ream the rod bushings or replace them. Did they regrind your crankshaft? Weld on it. Can you give a very detailed outline of what you hear and when? Hopefully you don't have to go back in to the motor. Joe Frazar

I just finished fixing a sick Jalpa. It is not that big of a deal. These cars are very low tech. The parts cost are insane. I have had the motor out of my Jalpa 3 times at my house - Takes about 1 hour. Now I do have lift and a cart that I built to pull motors out of Porsches. Roll cart under car. 5 bolts drop entire drive train out after undoing lines and electrical connections. I like this set up - very easy. Now before anyone asks why 3 times. Bought car with poor shifting transmission. - took 3 tries to get the transmisson right. When a "PRO SHOP" puts late shift forks in an early gear box it will not shift right!!!!!!! The transmission had a hodge podge of late and early parts in it from damage done at the port when imported to the US. I fixed that problem - Some of my biggest nightmares fixing old cars have been undoing the FU of crap "PRO" mechanics. Did valves and headgaskets as well. Please check that your acorn nuts are not topping out on the studs!!!!!!!! The gasket will not last long. George Evans - Said he had only seen this one other time and me. Sorry I did not take pics - but if anyone needs Jalpa/Urraco advice I have done a lot to these cars. Joe Frazar

Peter, Thank you for doing that. I can stop telling everyone and send them to this thread. Joe Frazar

Got my joints yesterday, very happy with them. Jfrazar

Leo sorry I came across as such a ****** to you. It is obvious you think I own a junk car. I am honestly quite happy with it. Every person that has driven it has been very pleased with the car and quite taken with how well the car drives. I am just an a car guy having fun, if the car does not sell, I will just keep it. Yes I am a dealer by profession but this is not a "Flip" as you put it. Had to defend my honor after that slapping I just got!!!!!! Joe Frazar

All I can say is my god!!!!! I really feel for you, man I was horrified looking at those pictures. The cut off rod bolts blew me the most. Is the guy that did this work the fat guy on the 40th aniv. video who was trying to come across as the Lamborghini expert?

I ran a general ad in Hemmings with all three of my cars listed, Countach, my Urraco, the Jalpa and a friends Jarama. I was surprised at the calls that I got. Lots of dealers looking to steal them. They all told me after they realized I was not in need of cash to hold on to them. They all felt that pre Diablo Lamborghinis were going to be "Blue Chip collector cars." The Jarama sold pretty quickly for a good number. $35,000 and the car was nice but did need some cleaning up on the underside. I still think it was cheap. The real shocker was the calls from those that said they had always wanted a Countach and were looking. The bottom line is that demand is in the market, down some but there, future demand is clearly in the Countach's favor. I heard from a lot of guys "that car was always a dream of mine." I agree with Peter, now is the time to hold. JFrazar

Webb, Post some of the Countach photos. Joe

Why do you guys keep saying that the car did not have the correct motor. I may be wrong but it is my understanding that towards the end of Urraco production when the P111 USA car was being made it was tagged on the back as a P300 and had the P300 hood and other P300 upgrades but retained the early motor with air pump and other emissions items. That car on Ebay was a P111 car. I think it is correct. Joe Frazar

I made my tools out of sockets as well. I did have some Ferrari Pin Nut sockets from prior cars and some of them do fit. I will try to post photos later this week. jfrazar

I was contacted by a dealer that had this car - Color change car that was black, The interior was spray can dyed. I was show pics of the car upclose and the paint is not so good. Car also has a vacum pump installed in the front trunk????? to work the power brakes WTF. Clearly the seller has cleaned the car up. Be careful. JFrazar

I think it will all work out. A crack dealer would never cut off all of his customers ie. the rest of the world and the US> I can honestly say my dealership is doing fine. Lenders are making loans, customers are a little careful I can respect that. My finance company is having a lot of customers try to use the economy as a reason to be late. ???? You people are broke good times and bad. They have no clue about the economy. My moving company has slowed some but management issues are quickly solving that problem. AND ONE OF MY BANKS WANTS TO CANCEL A LINE OF CREDIT I HAVE> WTF> That is the problem. THE BANKERS!!! These guys think they are so smart. A little whip saw and they run like puxxy's. PS I had a long talk with the bank - I borrowed that one from Trump. As far as values of Lamborghini's. Yes they are dropping, so what, I am not done buying yet. If a nice front engined V12 car ever got back to 20k it would be in my garage. The cars are rare, have a great story, and are just cool as hell. Good enough for me. I think we will all be fine except for the late model cars. Joe Frazar 73 Urraco 84 Jalpa 85 Countach

My first vintage lambo drive was an Espada. The car was silver over blue leather. I was 20 years old and took a job as a book-keeper for a local repair shop while finishing school. Best 2 years of my life. I owned a 76 3.0 Carrera with a bad oil leak - working for the shop was the only way I could afford to fix it at the time. We had that car for a month. The owner tells me that if we start the car we must drive it. Well, I opened the shop every morning at 7 am. I could not wait to get to work, the sound of that V12 early in the morning. I drove that car every morning for almost 2 weeks. The driving position, the sound, the angle of the wheel, and those webers!!!!! Like nothing I had ever seen or heard. I have had Ferrari's and yes they are nice but nothing comes close to Lamborghini, - The total package. A very nice Jarama is available locally. I wonder if I need to add this car to the team?

Joe, I was reading about your problem. Are you sure that the blown fuses go to the fuel pump? If they do I would suspect that one of your fuel pumps is failing. I have seen this before on older fuel injected cars. As the pump is running, it starts to lock up as it builds up heat. When the car broke down on you the failing pump blew the fuse's because the Amp draw was over 15 amps, to keep the pump running as it was locking up. Now the pump is just getting warm and starting to lock up and not allowing the car to restart until it completely cools. The only way to really test this is with a fuel preasure gauge in the fuel loop while the car is running. If the pump is going bad you will start to see the fuel preasure drop off as the car warms up and the longer it runs. It may take some time. If you do not have spark when the car warms up don't rule out a failing dist. rotor either. Just trying to help. Problems like these can be a real pain. I already have the t-shirt. Joe Frazar

Remove the Right radiator exhaust vent on top of the right fender. It should be right in front of you. 4 smal screws hold it on. JFrazar

Man it looks like a pain in the ass to replace all of them but I think it needs to be done. I mainly wanted to get the one that I was sure failed replaced and run the motor to make sure everything was okay. Thank god it was. Has anyone done this job themselves? If so what are the tricks. Joe Frazar

I am writing this to see if anyone has had this happen to them. This past saturday I was asked to bring my Countach to a local car show. As I pull into the parking lot, after a wonderful drive that morning, I stop to get my instructions as to parking ect. oil starts leaking under the car with a little bit of smoke. I must admit I was a little freaked out by it. After some investigation I found that the line from the Oil pump up to the filter housing had a small split. What a mess. I was happy that fellow local lambo owner scaledetails was present with his Diablo. What a day, lots of fun, and the local hot rod guys got a kick out of both cars. Needless to say that afternoon I had to have the car towed away. Monday I one of my mechanics remove the line, had a local shop rebuild the line for me and all is well. This is what bothers me; what if this happened while blasting down the interstate, I was in a parking lot backing the car into a spot. What about the other lines??? Has anyone had this happen????? The lines all look in great shape. While I was doing the one. I went ahead and rebuilt the one that runs between the headers off the side of the block. What are the tricks on the lines going to oil thermostat and the front oil coolers? DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!!!! Joe Frazar 85 2V FI