good day, my ac /smog pump bracket broke on me the other week, snapped right off the motor, turns out it was missing a bolt, a bolt that is suppose to go into the head, turns out the heads are not correct, dont have the hole

the car is a 88 GTA TA, 305 TPI but the motor is at least 86 or older as it has the perimeter valve cover bolts, not center bolt like it should

So I need to find a correct bracket to hold the ac delete, smog has been removed, i could even remove the ac delete pulley, but it has the tensioner on it, so not sure how to do that

any ideas on what i should do

 

Some have drilled and tapped a new hole in the head to correct the issue of the bolt holes not lining up but what you really should do is get the brace that runs from the exaust to the back of the A/C pump. If you do drill be careful, you will be drilling into the coolant passage, you will need to seal the bolt threads.

Those aluminum brackets will never be strong enough on their own even if you had all the bolts in place. I got my serpentine stuff from another member here but he didn't have the braces, it took a little time but I found the braces on ebay for about $20.

 

Are you able to post a picture of this brace from exhaust to ac pump....my ac pump has been removed, would I still be able to use?

 

I have been running the aluminum brackets without the metal braces since I got my 89 in 91 and 200,000 miles later they aren't broke.

The key is to have all the bolts inplace and tight.

 

TTOP350,

Some people may get lucky and not have them break, but it can't be too many or GM wouldn't have engineered the design with the braces. Besides the funny thing about Murphy is that he will pay you a visit when its most inconvenient and least expected.

lakeport,

Sorry I missed the part where you are using delete pulleys. If your running delete pulley's then the brace isn't going to help and isn't needed. The biggest factor for the brace was the stress the massive A/C pump puts on the bracket. The brace its self mounts directly to the compressor. Since all your utilizing is the tensioner the bracket bolts them selves will be fine to hold it in place. I can upload a picture of the brace later today.

 

Nothing to do with luck at all. Just having all the bolts and tight does wonders.
What are the real reasons GM put the braces there? Bracket breakage or just to help stop weird harmonic issues from being transferred to the motor and vise versa? We may never know that for sure 100%.
In the GM serp swap kit, they only use 2 braces, one for the AC and one for the alt, not the 4-6 the factory uses.

I still have all 6 of them from my motor in a box on a shelf along with many other spares that were ditched at the dealer over the years..

 

You do bring up a good point, makes a person wonder at times if the part in question was designed to zig or zag. One thing about engineers is that their education never seems to include the old saying "if its not broke don't fix it".