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First of all, this is only what I can tell about my '77 having a wrong assembly of the alternator brackets. Might not be the same thing for anyone else trying to understand theirs.
Found the curved water pump mounted bracket to be missing a spacer and instead had only a stretched open lock washer in its place. Picture inset.
Found this pried open lock washer where spacer is needed at water pump Alternator bracket mounting. Another correct(?) lock washer is under the bolt head on other side of bracket.
Next discovery is at the alternator itself in the head-mounted bracket. It's a spacer!
At first I thought it was part of the alternator, or like the steel sleeve on the other end where bolt nut threads on.
Upper portion of picture shows extracted spacer, lower shows where it was found.
I had to hammer it loose by using a chisel to wedge in there and knock it out from above, picture shows it from below before doing so.
Hammered the steel sleeve into alternator hole partway to take up the missing space and replaced bolt and nut.
Now alternator is forward where it should have been!
Here you can see the moved spacer and alternator bracket above. Notice rusty sleeve on left and only a small gap other side of bolt head in that bracket. Curved arm bracket now aligns perfectly too, blue arrow shows spacer's new location.
And for a few pictures combined to compare misalignment at upper right, correction made before lower and upper left pictures.
Fixed alternator belt alignment. Upper right shows belt as it looked before this was done (Alt itself was missed).
Pictures showing after fix, and before. The blackened pulleys can be seen where belt rubber had been wearing off, leaving rubber dust everywhere like on fan hub shaft. So yeah, that's not another belt on those; only an illusion.
Fixed shown left side, misaligned on right. Camera was aligned with water pump and crank pulleys both times.
First of all, this is only what I can tell about my '77 having a wrong assembly of the alternator brackets. Might not be the same thing for anyone else trying to understand theirs.
Found the curved water pump mounted bracket to be missing a spacer and instead had only a stretched open lock washer in its place. Picture inset.
Found this pried open lock washer where spacer is needed at water pump Alternator bracket mounting. Another correct(?) lock washer is under the bolt head on other side of bracket.
Next discovery is at the alternator itself in the head-mounted bracket. It's a spacer!
At first I thought it was part of the alternator, or like the steel sleeve on the other end where bolt nut threads on.
Upper portion of picture shows extracted spacer, lower shows where it was found.
I had to hammer it loose by using a chisel to wedge in there and knock it out from above, picture shows it from below before doing so.
Hammered the steel sleeve into alternator hole partway to take up the missing space and replaced bolt and nut.
Now alternator is forward where it should have been!
Here you can see the moved spacer and alternator bracket above. Notice rusty sleeve on left and only a small gap other side of bolt head in that bracket. Curved arm bracket now aligns perfectly too, blue arrow shows spacer's new location.
And for a few pictures combined to compare misalignment at upper right, correction made before lower and upper left pictures.
Fixed alternator belt alignment. Upper right shows belt as it looked before this was done (Alt itself was missed).
Pictures showing after fix, and before. The blackened pulleys can be seen where belt rubber had been wearing off, leaving rubber dust everywhere like on fan hub shaft. So yeah, that's not another belt on those; only an illusion.
Fixed shown left side, misaligned on right. Camera was aligned with water pump and crank pulleys both times.
better look at your power steering pulley as well. does not look to straight
better look at your power steering pulley as well. does not look to straight
Wups! Yep. I was going to mention it's broken and for everybody to ignore that, thanks for pointing it out.
Exactly the reason I was going to say something because I knew it looked like the next misaligned thing to work on! And it was making my fix look strange too.
Hard to tell in the pictures, just a reminder - water pumps come in 2 styles. A long and short water pump - make sure you have the correct one on your engine.
Hadn't checked to be sure what it is until you said that, I just knew it was a replacement water pump. No markings found on the casting, and from what I had found out the originals probably had a number and GM on them.
Mine measures at about 6" from engine block to fan mount, maybe just under that if WP side of fan mount and just over on fan side. I can't be more accurate. No doubt the "short" variety instead of "long" anyway.
These folks offer some fantastic alternatives to the factory brackets. I purchased an alternator bracket for my '81 as I was having similar problems. It worked great and is a heavy duty piece. I had to space my power steering bracket out to get it aligned correctly. So that is going to be my next purchase from this fine company.
These folks offer some fantastic alternatives to the factory brackets. I purchased an alternator bracket for my '81 as I was having similar problems. It worked great and is a heavy duty piece. I had to space my power steering bracket out to get it aligned correctly. So that is going to be my next purchase from this fine company.
Thanks for the tip. I am having belt squealing problems with my belt which could and I think part of it may be due to the alternator bracket. A good thought for a fix.
Thanks for the tip. I am having belt squealing problems with my belt which could and I think part of it may be due to the alternator bracket. A good thought for a fix.
misaligned alternator fix
