My power steering pump was leaking and the reservoir was rusting, so I decided to go ahead and set up for A/C while I was doing work anyway. Until now, I've been using brackets off a Suburban, skipping the A/C mount.

I'm pretty sure I have the brackets everyone who doesn't buy a complete serpentine kit is using, but I'm at a loss as to how people are using them. There's always the chance that I need some remedial geometry classes and just haven't figured it out.

Engine and brackets are still dirty as heck in these shots. I'm cleaning and powder coating later today.


First, the existing setup, with Suburban brackets and alternator.


These are the parts I have from a Caprice


This is the drivers side Suburban bracket so you can see the bolt pattern better on that side.


These are the drivers brackets side by side (and upside down). No fitment issues on this side, at least as far as steering pump.


Here's the front of the Vortec heads w/ Suburban alternator bracket in foreground. See how far apart the top left bolt hole and the stud are?


This picture of the Caprice bracket in place was a bit hard to get. My thumb is pointing a little left of the stud, which didn't show in the picture, and has nothing to connect to.



This is the back of the Caprice passenger side bracket. See how close the holes are? About the same as drivers side.

The passenger side Vortec head uses a wider bolt pattern than the driver side. The caprice brackets use the same pattern on both sides, so you end up with the stud sticking through what would be the center of the air pump on a Caprice. You can still get 2 bolts to the head and one to the block so maybe it's fine, but I don't need 2 accessories on the passenger side anyway, so I don't see how it helps me to use this instead of the Suburban alternator bracket.

My best guess is that I need to find an idler pulley that fits across the top, and keep basically the same routing as I have with the A/C mounted on the right side using some adapters, and the accumulator over where the stock evap can belongs. Does anyone know a better way to do this?

Half for others doing the swap, half for my own reference later:

GM Part numbers I ordered in addition to my junkyard parts, based on the GM kit but 1/3 the price:
10129569 Idler Bracket <-- Looks like it goes to that unused stud, maybe.
19319858 Power Steering Pump <-- Mine was leaking, it's for a 91-92 Camaro
10055890 Idler Pulley (A/C delete) <-- Need to figure out adapters to different style AC pump I have later. This stupid idler was the most expensive part, but I want to drive the car!
88986814 Belt

how much interested