I just thought I'd share my little modification I did to my AC/Smog bracket the other day. My original problem with the bracket, is that the bolt holes on the lower half of it were all enlarged and some were busted. Being an aluminum bracket, my welder told me that a weld on the bolt holes wouldn't hold. My car came to me in pieces, and it turns out I never had a bracket to begin with, so this is the bracket I got off of a member here for a couple of bucks. So I'm really not out much if this bracket fails.



So basically I just cut off the part of the bracket that holds the smog pump on, as if it was never even there. Hopefully it'll hold up. I plan on running A/C on this car so I'd really hoping that the extra strain on the bracket wont snap it off.

Questions and concerns welcome

 

Well I painted and put it on today, got some bolts and a belt. Just an FYI for anyone who's curious, the Dayco belt mentioned in this article fits perfectly! My only modification to this article is that I cut off the lower half of the bracket cause it was already broken. If my bracket brakes, oh well, it was busted when I bought it.

But anyways, here's a picture of my setup with the same belt size and routing used in the article:



If my bracket brakes, I'll probably either have a buddy of mine fabricate a steel bracket, or I'll buy another factory one and leave it alone. This bracket seems pretty sturdy though, so wish me luck. When I get the A/C working is when the bracket will be under the most strain. Right now though, I have to make my vacuum lines work again. They were cut when the engine was removed so that someone had to replace them, but the problem is I wasn't the one who removed the engine ... so I need to find a good vacuum diagram to work from.

 

My pump just locked up and sheared the top bolts and broke the bottom of the bracket so I was looking to bypass it... did this hold?