LM002 RHD Rolling restoration.. will be updated regularly

Our LM002 is home with new fuel lines installed and new back bench seats in bed.

Excited to drive.

 

driving now. Temp 30 degrees.

Will post pictures. The bench seats turned out great.

Hope all is well.

Taz

 

Since this thread has become a kind of the official worldwide gathering of LM002 owners, let me chime in too.
- How have you solved the side window seals?
- Electric motors for power windows - does anyone know a replacement?
- Does anyone know if Pirelli new Scorpion can have an optional sand lip? Without the sand lip it looks not as radical.
- What is your own experience with cold starts? No choke cables on LM002.
- Front brake discs?..
- is dizzy drive kinda loud on cold starts? or is it just mine?

I can add a little from my experience :
- if someone would be restoring interior, Fiat Argenta circa 1981 had the same air vents (it also donored the Countach manual drive window handle)
- the closest donor for the indicator and wiper arm/switches is LHD Rover SD1 (the connectors might not be a direct fit), while a direct fit is rumored to be a late Lotus Esprit (Esprit S1/S2 are not identical, so it should be S3).
- the valve shims are 29 mm for 33 mm lifter - same as Ferrari and Fiat. You can adjust them without taking the cams out with the right tool, same as on Diablo 6.0.
- the OE spec valve clearances are quite ridiculous, especially on the exhaust side - 0.50 mm.
- never lose coolant while acting a fool - you may break a cylinder liner (based on a fellow's experience)
the liners are fairly thin cast iron ones.

 

My problem is that they were leaking before they've got changed. And the roof was leaking a little too. As the result some mustiness occured on the seats and interior parts, looking awful. I'd like to eliminate that! It shouldn't be very deep, but my second guess would be that air venting is difficult on LM, so the mustiness might not be the consequence of only the leaking door window rubber, rather than ventilation problem.
However, due to previously leaking rubber in doors, the electric motors for power windows are quite lazy.
Any experience is welcome!

 

I have an injected truck but am very familiar with the carb motor too. I see no reason the distributor drive would make noise when cold. Ours makes quite a bit of noise on cold start in cold weather from the oiling system. I suspect it is a cavitation noise or possibly from the oil hoses. It goes away in 10 seconds or so depending on how cold the weather is.

My experience on cold starts is it is very fussy for the first 2 minutes or so with the injected motor. For the US they are set very lean when cold for emission purposes.



Is it possible to get the VIN and a description of your truck for my list?

 

When I first started it, it was incredibly unstable, bad idle, that quickly descended to like 300 RPMs, and I was like:"Holy crap! Kill the engine!"
Yeah, quite fussy moment. I was walking around, biting my lip, waiting the engine to die (literally) - so many different sounds it performed. The accelerator pedal is a bit too crispy too react in the first few degrees, like zero dead zone. So I drove it to a service, jumped around, and as planned before, took out the carbs and opened the heads to check the valve clearances. However, they are more or less within spec, which means, maybe the valves ARE quite loud when cold. Because 0.50 mm cold lash on any other car would definitely sound like an out-of-spec lash, and here's at least 24 of these. The sound wasn't permanent around, in some areas of the head - more, the other - less.

Tomorrow I'm gonna get to the right head, which holds the distributor. I'm willing to check the bearings and 90 degree gears wear, though I'm not willing to rebuild the dizzy, so I won't break something significant, haha. It's gonna be a sound check that will tell me something.


p.s. Once upon a time, me and my friend have been messing around a perfect W124 E500. We decided to change the oil in the rear differential, to see what's inside (still an old car), and see if we can lower the throttle-on/off click in the rear. When we drained the diff, we saw the differential clicking (!) - if you rotate the CV driveshafts at different speeds. We were amazed, decided to rebuild the diff. We got some older diffs around, took them apart, they all had the differential gears eaten, so we couldn't use them for parts. Removed, packed the diff and within 2 hours I was at the diff specialist. He washed the diff and said that we were crazy. He said, "When the diff is properly set up it SHOULD click (if the gears are quite big)", and only new diffs do this. The true mileage was only 49000 KMs. So we put it back with a new oil, feeling much more confident than before, and something did improve. But the very light on/off click was still there. Some cars are never perfect. Maybe if we changed all CVs in the rear, it could improve.

 

Quite a few cars use .5mm and more for valve clearance so it is not unusual at all. Also it need not make noise if the cam acceleration ramps are designed for that which the Lambo cams are. To reduce it in the name of reducing noise is not a good idea, it is circumventing the design of the cams and can cause problems. Adjust them to spec.

Now that I understand a little more about your concerns I would take a good look at the cam drive system.

As far as it cold starting ability a carb truck should not present the difficulties you are experiencing. At the age these have gotten to be the chances of poor repairs and poor tuning in the past is very real and very common. I would in the process of inspecting the cam drive system and valve adjustment perform a good degreeing of the cams. They are very sensitive to it and proper timing is essential. Then inspect the distributor advance mechanism for proper operation. Then and only then would I get into the carbs to be sure they are set in both jetting and float levels to the factory specifications. One of my clients is the original owner of a carb LM002 and I have serviced it since new. It has no starting issues and will chirp the Scorpions in 4th gear. It is a very impressive performer for a large truck. I wish our fuel injected truck had near that power.


Would it be possible to get a description and the VIN of your truck for my records?

 

Isn't it electronically adjusted? Still mechanical?

I know that one head was serviced (head gasket issue). The chains are perfect in terms of slack between cams.

Can I check the timing marks on the 1st cam cap (1/12th cylinder)? Will they line up if set properly? I'm using L406 and Diablo 6.0 manuals (all I got). Any cam specs? TDC lifts or opening ramps for QV/LM?

I suppose that ignition angles were really bad. I don't have any decal to set up timing, what should be it? I know it's 8 degrees for LM FI, should it be 13 degrees for LM DD?

I can't tell you the VIN at the moment, however, here are about 23+ LM002s. Most of them are still in service.
The car is a euro VIN'd KLA121xx.

Thanks!
Alex.

 

Advance in a carb truck is mechanical.

I don't care about chain tension at this point. There are many problem areas in the cam drive that need to be inspected.

Cam cap marks mean very little. It needs to be degreed according to the service manual.

There are 300 or so LM's. We really don't know how many are still in service.

One of the heads was serviced in mine too before I got it. The chain was tight but it was so badly reassembled it would have blown up had I not gotten in there and corrected all the bad work and replaced damaged parts.

Your truck is not running right and it is making bad noises. It is a very bad plan to skip things because they have been worked on before or you assume they are ok.
Start at the beginning, work to the end and make it all correct. Any other plan will not result in a reliable truck that runs correctly.

If you do not have a service manual....get one.

If you don't know it well enough to perform those checks and adjustments...get someone who is.

 

I don't mean to skip things.

Here's the most interesting. Where? Does it exist?

Thanks,
Alex.

 

I am sure reprints are available. I have had mine for 15 years or so. Working without it is just not a good plan. Ask around and get yourself one.

 

Huh? Any pic?
Nobody has ever offered a workshop manual for LM002.
Taffy doesn't know about it either, so does Emilio (at least he never said about it).
Maybe, you've got the Holy Grail?

There's a parts manual and owner manual that are generally available.

 

Parts manual down load link is at the top in the sticky.

 

Well, yeah, but these are just parts!

So far I've already got:
- 1988 LM002 parts manual for a DD carb engine
- Lamborghini L406 engine manual (4.0 2V engine)
- Late Diablo 6.0 engine manual (most useful as it has some 4V specs)

Anything else available for a Countach QV or LM DD engine?

 

I've spoken to a local Lamborghini dealer, they said that they had requested a workshop manual for a LM002 at the factory and factory archives couldn't help with it.

p.s. Recent progress:
- carbs rebuilt, 4 of 6 were really bad and the other 2 were slightly clogged.
- timing marks line up perfectly, little chain slack
- made a valve clearance tool, it fits, but it doesn't work too well - bad angle (the tool hits the spark plug beam of the head) - need to make it better tonight.
- borrowed a Malpassi fuel regulator from a friend's Maserati Biturbo (ordered 2 new Malpassi Filter Kings)
- gonna refresh the looks and assemble next week

 

Valve covers for dinner, anyone?
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Guess, something isn't right with the tensioner. All timing marks line up, but when pull the chain to the top, here's what I get. The tensioner is already fully tensioned (on LM002 you got a lever on the side of a block). Chad said it was possible to adjust it even more.

Sorry, I've taken this photo with a potato camera.
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