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I had to borrow these pics from other members - they show what I'm trying to explain perfectly. I hope you don't mind.
I currently have the all v-belt setup and will be switching to the mixed v-belt and serpentine setup. A/C and air pump will be removed and I fabricated my own brackets to mount the alternator halfway between the stock location and the where the air pump was. My question is does anyone know of an inexpensive (March is OUT) and better designed set of brackets to mount the power steering pump in nearly the stock location? Yes, I have the "A" can v-belt pump - same as shown. Since he A/C will not be there, I don't need the factory brackets that are intertwined with the A/C compressor. Plus I hate the factory PS bracket with its hidden and hard to get to adjustment bolts/nuts. I'm also using SLP headers.
Why not some used serpentine system? I got everything, including accessories, on eBay for $250 shipped.
Mine had the mixed setup - funny thing was the multi rib alternator belt would slip constantly. The V belts were fine. Other than the horrible tightenting procedure and nightmare bracketry.
Water pump is several hours with the V belt setup. It's like 20 minutes with the serp system. I switched mine over like a year ago or more. Belt still looks new. Never makes a sound. Amazing.
1) because I already have everything for the mixed setup - I just want better (more user friendly) PS brackets.
2) My alternator is on pass side. Converting to full serpentine changes it to the drivers side and I don't want to add more bracketry (and delete pulleys) to have less accessories. All I will have is ALT (1 serpentine belt) and PS (1 v-belt). SIMPLE.
A/C and air pump will be removed and I fabricated my own brackets to mount the alternator halfway between the stock location and the where the air pump was.
How about . . . line the pump up so you have one serpentine belt. The pump will need to come forward I believe, you'll need a serp crank pulley and alt. pulley. If the alt. or pump can be tensioned, you might not need need to run a tensioner; an 87 doesn't have one on its' serp/v Combe setup. The only trick will be whether your belt will wrap the accessories enough. If not, a single idler should do it.
How about . . . line the pump up so you have one serpentine belt.
OK, I considered it. It still ends up more complicated. With mixed I do not need the L & R side serpentine mounting brackets, reverse rotation water pump, tensioner, and pulleys. I'm looking to remove as much as possible to gain room under the hood, for ease of working on it and airflow (cooling). Both the ALT and PS can be individually tensioned. I will have great belt wrap. I think I can even add a 2nd v-belt if the PS should want to slip.
Attached is some pics of my lowered ALT mounting.
Last edited by NoEmissions84TA; May 11, 2017 at 08:54 PM.
How about . . . line the pump up so you have one serpentine belt.
OK, I considered it. It still ends up more complicated. With mixed I do not need the L & R side serpentine mounting brackets, reverse rotation water pump, tensioner, and pulleys.
Right.
The reverse rotation pump would give you better wrap. But, the 89-92 belt routing didn't give great wrap and it still works fine. So the PS belt wrap probably isn't an issue unless the narrower serp. belt is that much worse than the 6 rib stuff.
If you are still bolted to the 87-down water pump, water and PS pump changes are no easier, which is one big downside to the 87-down accessories.
You're probably at a good point for simplicity, but you're missing out on an easier to change belt (without tensioner) and water pump (with the bolted-on bracketry in the way.)
I would make the PS pump fixed, line it up for single-serp alignment (using 85-87 pulleys) and maybe on this round, get it off the water pump. Your only tensioned accessory will be the alt. and I agree, I think your belt routing will work well.
At some point, if the narrow serp belt doesn't work out that great, go to the 6 rib stuff, and line it up, and don't forget braces and triangulation so it is rigid.
In case you're missing one, There are a lot of aftermarket 6 rib PS pulleys mentioned in the threads about LS swaps. Just don't get one for a Vette pump; wrong i.d. for your pump.
I bought this set up off Ebay for about $40 bucks. I felt the March was the best designed ALT bracket, so I splurged, but the PSP is just some random piece. Instructions weren't the best, but price was right, and once I figured it out it was easy. ALL kinds of various kits out there.
***Just to clarify, the PS brackets were $40, not everything. ...and it's an early style keyed saginaw pump, NOT a TPI pump, and it's an early style long water pump, not the short TPI style.
Yes, I have seen those before. Nice setup you have there.
I assume your PS pump has no interference issues with the steering box or frame rail using those brackets? That is my concern with swapping to a different bracket setup. Without the A/C compressor, the pump can now be mounted higher. Also, I could never stand how the PS pump was mounted at an angle - I want it vertical like your setup shows.
Yeah, I'm glad someone else doesn't like the angled PS pump. I see a lot of that. ...Not saying I wouldn't have used it, but I was hoping to mount it more vertical, and it worked out.
...nope, no clearance issues. Without a side by side comparo of the serp set up, I feel like it's actually a little tighter to the block. Maybe that's just in my head. The March alt bracket is actually designed for a alt clocked at 12 and 6, not 12 and 4, so you can see how it pushes it out a little. Still, plenty of room. -on BOTH sides.
