beatervette

Do you have the right water pump? short vs. long

Shurshot

Also missing is a 427 with AC only........ but they are pretty neat drawings and hopefully will contribute to bringing the OP's problems to an end

Doug

Subfixer

When I first added power steering to my 64, the above pulleys are what I used (Alt on Pass side). Everything cleared perfectly.

The critical pulley is the CAST IRON Power Steering pulley. If you are using the stamped steel one, nothing will line up correctly.

The power steering belt only goes around the crank and steering pump pulleys. It does not go around the water pump.

Inner crank pulley groove - Alternator
Outer crank pulley groove - Power Steering

The last trick I can offer is to make sure you are using the shortest Alt belt possible. The closer the Alt is to the block, as opposed to the fenderwell, the steeper the belt angle will be from the crank pulley, thus giving more clearance to the lower hose. I used the correct belt from LICS catalog. (don't have the belt number handy).

TJefferson2020

I just solved this problem in with my '70 SB with power steering without AC - I got the correct lower rad hose and now I have about an inch clearance. Make sure you are using the right hose - I got mine from Zip.

kbuhagiar

Hey Mikey,

Any luck so far?

Mikey65

I was away for a day or so.. but still trying to solve this issue. I will take some pics and work on a couple things today. Will try to post numerous pics of what I am looking at right now. Gimme a couple hours to get them.

Mikey65

I think I might have solved the clearance issue, among other things...

I replaced the old alternator with a new one with a pulley that allows the belt to sit all the way in the groove. I also replaced the F bracket with one that came with the sleeve that would tighter the alternator on the F bracket and not let it flop around. I also replaced the header bracket the F bracket attaches to. Alignment looks good, and the clearance is better than it was... I was able to gain a bit more clearance by twisting a bit on the lower hose, but everything looks better. Hopefully this solves most of the problems I had including the bolts on the pump loosening... I plan on using lock washers on the pump bolts as well.

skids

With the alt all the way to the end of the bracket like that, is the belt tight now? Looks like a shorter belt would help by raising the belt where it looks real close to the hose.

Mikey65

Well, I put everything together this morning, new pulley, new alternator, new alternator bracket, new gaskets... etc, started the car and immediately noticed the pulley had a decent wobble to it. The pulley I had been using before is the stock (or what I thought was stock - not sure) black pulley. I didn't notice a wobble with that pulley, but changed to the current one as it fits the water pump WITHOUT using any spacers behind the pulley. I took off the alternator pulley, spun the fan by hand and can definately see the wobble. This is a chrome spectre POS I got at Kragen.. I guess I can try a different pulley that fits without spacers and see if it wobbles. Thoughts?

MasterDave

You really need a pully that don't do the wibble-wobble. Mine looks just like yours. Do like I PM'd ya (hose clamps).

Mikey65

I did.. but I still need a new pulley... assuming it's the pulley that is wobbleing.

jim lockwood

It sure looks to me like you would be well served by using correct original parts instead of aftermarket parts.

A couple of pictures of my bone-stock '63 illustrate what I mean.

This first picture shows the correct alternator pulley for a low HP engine which offsets the belt forward by about a belt width.

It also shows, if you look closely, that the alternator brace has an offset to it which is not apparent in the most recent photo of your engine. This means the alternator needs to be farther forward than it is on your car.

And finally, this photo shows that the alternator belt rides in the forward pulley sheave.




Roll all this together and you get belt to hose clearance that looks like this:




Good luck,

Jim

Mikey65

Ok... this is in a 65 with power steering right? From what I understand the PS goes in the forward groove.. not the alternator.

I can move the alternator forward as much as I want... and change alternator pulleys all day. The problem is that the alignment is off when I do that.

So... does the PS belt go in the front or rear groove?

My main issue is that this EXACT setup worked fine on the old engine... same pulleys, same alternator, but different water pump/radiator hose. I have since replaced the stock GM factory hose with a NAPA hose manuf by gates, which is the same as the old hose that I brilliantly chucked.

jim lockwood

My car is a '63 with factory power steering.


This is not true, and might be the source of some of the alignment issues you've been having.

On all Sting Rays I've ever seen both water pump and crank pulleys are double sheave. The alternator/water pump belt goes in the forward sheave.

(If you've noticed there is a belt in the rear sheave of the pulleys on my car, that is a redundant belt I added. It's not a factory item.)

On Sting Rays with power steering, the crank pulley has an extra pulley added, bringing the total number of crank pulley sheaves to three. The PS belt goes around this forward-most sheave and the PS pump pulley and it goes around only these two pulleys.

It won't be if you use stock pulleys.
Neither. As I wrote above, it goes in a special third crank sheave that is a bolt-on extra. Take a look at this picture and note the forward-most belt on the crank pulley; that is the PS belt.




I've got a hunch you've stared at this problem for so long and that you are so frustrated by it that you are now checking your own mistakes. Something is different between old and new. It has to be.

BTW, the lower rad hose visible in the photos of my car is a NAPA/Gates hose and the alternator belt is a Gates 7555 (55.5", approximately).

Jim

sub006

The "Bubba" fix is to put one or two metal hose clamps on as protective armor where the belt might rub.

465hp

I still think the hose is on backwards. It fits both ways and rubs on the belt only one way. Sorry if I am repeating myself.

Mikey65

I see how it can go on backwards now. But it's not. I will call LIC corvette tomorrow and see if I can straighten this out.

obx2323

BarryK

100%
in fact, I believe MikeM made this same suggestions a few days ago.

you keep swapping out aftermarket part for aftermarket part and keep running into issues with alignment problems, clearance problems, etc.

If it was me, I'd pull every aftermarket part that was put on that relates to this problem (hose, pulleys, spacers, brackets, etc), and install the correct, original parts on and make sure you follow the AIM or service manual for the correct placement of where each systems belts go on which pulley groove and it WILL work.
You will have correct clearances, correct alignments, and with everything aligned and not wobbling on you and pulling with sideloads because of misalignments your water pump bolts will stay tight (not to mention you won't destroy the water pump seal prematurely).

You keep swapping out to these aftermarket parts and i'll bet you will keep running into issues and chasing your tail endlessly

Shurshot

Sullivans law simply stated said the Murphy was an optimist

There are times when although things are done right circumstances require some innovation....... that is when it is good to know Bubba's number.

But first things need to be done correctly

Doug