jfrazar

Have you checked into a Mercedes steering damper? They are very close visually. Same one for almost all the cars. Joe

Glenn, The hand brake calipers are Lambo only. They made those themselves from what I found. I know the covers you are talking about. I am missing one as well. Joe

Tony, DON'T SELL the Lamborghini. The 308-no problem. The Lambo has to much of a story - I personally think replacing it with a modern Lamborghini would be a mistake. I have a firm conviction that these modern exotics with all the electronic gizmo stuff - check engine lights, air bags, ABS, ect. will prove to be mechanical and electrical nightmares in the future and the pre-electronic age cars will surge in demand. Just my 2 cents - Old school is cool. No offense to the new car guys.

Robin, I don't know if this will help or not - I just replaced the front calipers on my Urraco with units from a 77 630 BMW/ 528 BMW. They were an exact replacement. I know that the calipers on my car are all ATE. The nipples should be standard BMW - Porsche. I am sure that the rear calipers are some type of ATE caliper as well. When I looked at a friends Jalpa - his brakes were the same as mine at the wheels. Hope this helps. Joe Frazar

87 VW Jetta - to be exact. The Window reg and motor are all one unit with Cables. Easy to locate motor in different spots. Keep us posted on the progress. Joe Frazar

If you plan on doing the work yourself it can't be that bad. If you are going to pay someone pass. I have taken on projects like this in the past. The BIG question is WHY WAS IT PARKED? If it was running and driving then plan on a refresh on the motor, carbs, ect. All new seals and hoses - poss re-ring and maybe a valve job. Crossref as much as you can to other manufacturers to keep cost down and have fun. IT IS JUST A CAR BUILT BY A LOW PRODUCTION OUTFIT> Lots of things came from Fiat, Alfa, BMW, Ect. BTW, years ago when I was in College I worked for a local shop. We had a Dr. from Jacksonville bring in an Espada. I loved that car - Had to be driven every morning when we pulled it out of the shop - My first exp to a V12 Lambo. I can still hear it in my mind. He had been to 4 shops trying to get the Window regs to work. I tossed the original lambo set up -Cables, Pulleys ect. for a set of VW Jetta Power window regs - worked perfect. He Loved it. - No more problems. My 10 cents.

Glenn, Mine runs great on 93 - no need for special fuel. Joe PS>do you need my help on the struts?

Glenn, 2 Coils? Is that all you are worried about? Is you current system working? If not what is the problem? In my opinion the only hold back on the "2 Coil" system is the cost of a replacement Cap and Rotor $$$$$$$. To illustrate why you have 2 coils and one dist. - picture in your mind a cap and rotor with 2 levels, one on top of the other. The way it has been explained to me is that because of the time it takes for the coil to recharge and the RPM's these motors turn. 1 Coil firing 4 cyl will be cleaner than 1 coil trying to fire 8 at 7,000 rpms. Today, no big deal (MSD, Elec Ignition, Petronix, ect.) in the 70's it must have been. That is why you have 2 coils - One for 4 of the 8 cyls and one for the other 4 all coming together in one dist. My car runs great with the original set up. My Ferrari 308 has 2 seperate dist, coils, caps, rotors, everything.- all on one motor that have to sync together. Talk about a pain in the ass. Because the mountings of the caps are much the same. I did start to look into what it would take to install a generic cap and rotor on a Marelli dist. some have done it. Will keep you posted if I ever pull that project back out. Just my 2 cents

Glenn Why do you need a dissy? - Can't it be rebuilt? BTW. I saw you had no posts on your points conversion. Because we have the 2 level caps and rotors in our early cars. This is what I came up with. Install 2 Crane XR700 Elec ignition units. Use one drive wheel but space the 2 pickups 30 deg apart in the dissy. That would give you elec ign. and still retain a stock look. - I know this has been done on Single dissy 308's that I swear use the same cap and rotor. Carreaper has a Jalpa. - It does have a reg dissy in it. I am going to see if I can get the part number (I am sure it is Bosch). The mounting does look very different from my urraco when I poked my head in to look. Joe

Saturday night - My wife and I took the Urraco out for dinner for the first time. (this car was in sad shape 1 month ago). The car drove so well. - I must admit it runs better than any of the Ferrari's I have had or currently have. A friend of mine and his wife met us with their 308, I could not believe the people who recognized the Urraco. They were blown away that I was driving it around. = Thought I would share that = these cars are way under the radar. I might start looking for another.

Doesn't the Countach have regular shocks? You should be able to match those up with a set of Koni's or somthing along those lines. Call some of the vendors and give them the mounting method and the extended and compressed length. They should be able to match up a spring that would work as well. The reason, I think, the urraco/jalpa strut job is a big deal is because it is a sealed strut asym that is NLA. The typical shops that rebuild shocks were quoting me close to $500 - $600 per strut to rebuild or upgrade to a Koni shock. No knock on these cars but they are not race cars but street cars. I had to find a lower cost solution. I use a standard replacement strut cartridge. A little machine work and you have new strut inserts in the orginal housing that look and feel like the factory units. We also replaced the rubber boots, painted the housings and replaced all the mounting hardware. The whole job does require some special tools so I would not say this is a home job completely. Like I said earlier- my mechanic would do this conversion for others. All you would need todo is remove your struts - Very easy. Mail them to me and you would get back the following. 4 New Strut Inserts. 4 New Dust Boots. Bead Blasted Housings and repainted New Mounting hardware. All rebuilt and ready to bolt back on the car. I would estimate turn around @ 1 Week If anyone wants to know how to do this yourself I do have all the part numbers ect. and can tell you how. JF

Struts are done! The old ones were shot - to hell and back. Car drives so much better. My mechanic who works for me at my dealership would rebuild/upgrade the struts on these cars for anyone who is interested. Jalpa's aswell. I also replaced the front calipers and pads. - 77 BMW 630 units. - exact replacement. Also replaced the interior lights in the car. - My guess was correct. - Porsche 911 Targa Glove box lamp. It is a hella part. $20 Each from Pelican parts. Now I have working interior lights. They have black trim and not chrome - the Chrome units are NLA. Thought this might help. Joe Frazar

Mike, Are you the guy that owns the silver Urraco and works on these cars professionally? I need to talk to you. I am driving the Urraco into work this morning - I will be doing the strut rebuild/conversion this week. JF

I must admit that am lucky to have a lift at my house. It makes jobs a lot easier. Jobs like the carb overhaul can be done with the car parked on the ground. The balancing of the carbs is really very simple also. With a basic tool kit and some time really anything can be done. Back in college I would drop the motor on my 911 with 2 jackstands and a jack. The Urraco asym looks more difficult because of size only. If I can help give me a call. Joe Frazar

Just looked over your list. I just bought a 74 Urraco 2 months ago and did the following: 1. Replaced timing belt - Motor in Car -Super Easy $30 2. Rebuilt the carbs and balanced them. - Super Easy. $100 3. Replaced the shift shaft seals. - Did not cure problem completely. $3 4. Had one Headlight motor that would not work. - Same as my 914. Tested and found that one of the Diodes was bad. Radio Shack .53 cents later fixed. $.53 5. Blinkers did not work, one Napa european style flasher - problem fixed. $13 6. Replaced one exhaust donut. $6 7. Measured the Demensions of the Air Boxes. and Found K&N Round filters with no wire that dropped right in. $70 8. Replaced all Fluids and Bulbs ect. - Normal Stuff. I am loving this thing - every part is from another maker. - Don't get suckered into big lambo parts prices. Projects left are - 1. Replace the struts, plan on using Monroe inserts in Fiat Housing. 2. 2 New Calipers in Front - Stick somtimes- 77 BMW 630CSI - $48 Each @ NAPA. 3. Repair a few Rust Bubbles. $1200 4. Fix and Replace interior Lights - 911 Porsche and 928 - Black instead of Chrome - Cant find Chrome. = $20 Each The Car runs perfect - Better than my 308. Keep me posted on your electronic ignition conversion. I still want todo that. Joe Frazar

I just joined this lambo-power chat room tonite. Looking through the old threads and found this. What a bullshit thread. Netviper and Allan-lambo both need to get a life. The piece of shit 89 Esprit SE belongs to me. Allan-lambo I can't quite figure out, but seems to have some real world experience with exotics. Netviper on the other hand is nothing more than full of crap, with very little experience. I guess my lotus was a piece of shit because it wasn't easy enough to drive unlike a Honda. When he drove the car he could not even get it into 2nd gear. Many people have driven the car. I toss the keys all the time. Everyone loves it. He is the ONLY person who had any trouble. Hate to see him get behind the wheel of something hard to drive like a Countach. If all you two care about is who is the fastest you guys miss the point of these cars completely. I have had many Ferraris, Porsches, Other lotus's and currently own one of each at this moment. The bottom line is this: The 89 esprit SE will rip the shit out of a lot of cars out there. I have done it. The also don't break down. Mine has been very reliable. Unlike netvipers new NSX with blew up, 1 week after he got it. I don't know what Esprit netviper was racing at the track in savannah, it wasn't me. My esprit has never been on Roebling. I was the Comptroller for the track for 7 years. My 914 and my Formula Mazda are the only 2 cars that get track time. By the way do either of you two have an SCCA Competition License? Didn't think so.