Hi folks, I need help with aligning my power steering pump. A few weeks ago my harmonic balancer came apart when I was coming up through the gears pretty hard. When it came apart it busted the water pump and the power steering pump and twisted the belt.

I have been trying to get things back together ever since. My current issue is that I cannot get the power steering pump to align with the crank pulley. As much as it is off, I’m thinking it can only be the mounting brackets, do you agree? The pump is brand new from Zip.

Not that it matters but my car is a 1968 and the engine is a 454. It also had only one belt the entire time I have had it. It’s a non AC car.

See photos and advice.



Busted power steering pump.

Total misalignment.

 

I am thinking the brackets are bent from the impact?
The pulleys are not even in the same "plane"
Doesn't the back pulley on the PS pump line up with the front pulley spot on the balancer? Or supposed to?

 

Yeah they are supposed to be aligned just as you indicated. The PS pulley is also very close to hitting the frame, it would be hard to get the belt on.

 

Thats all bent to hell... You need a long straight edge and a good vise to measure, dissemble, bend, reassemble, measure......repeat.

goood luck

 

Looks like both brackets got bent out and back, impressive as that bottom one is fairly substantial
The bottom bracket should at the very least be parallel to the crank pulley / balancer. Not a great picture but you can kind of see it here


M

 

is the new harmonic balance the same depth ,, also the power steering belt has no clearance and it should be that way ,, it almost looks like the brackets are in the wrong place ,, I really also think you should have the triple pulley ,,, It should be a three belt system not one

 

I has issues with my belts getting aligned properly and finally just went to March Performance and bought their serpentine belt conversion. I have a 427 without AC on my 1968 C3 and with the serpentine system life is so much simpler. The only issue I have had with my March system is the powder coating has been flaking off of the brackets.

If you buy new pulleys or brackets just be aware that the 1968 models had tow different sizes for the water pump pulley. The early one and the post January 1968 version which spins the water pump faster and makes a HUGE difference in the operating temperature. You do not want to get stuck with an early pulley on any 427 or 454. I believe there was a recall regarding this pulley swap in early January 1968.

When the damper broke it must have really hit that power steering bracket hard as the bend is really bad compared to the stock setup. The serpentine swap makes life so much easier and the belt squealing is a thing of the past.

 

Thanks I have thought about going with a serpentine setup but I don’t want to convert to electric fans. My old school flex fan does a great job of keeping things cool.

 

Not sure this is a bent bracket issue, that lower bracket is pretty robust when mounted to the block. Harmonic balancer appears to be installed correctly and fully seated. That leaves the pulleys and PS pump, I would double check that PS pulley is installed in the correct orientation and fully seated. The amount of misalignment is huge so I'm leaning towards something installed incorrectly.

 

Hi, I was also thinking the bracket would be very hard to bend but the photo shows it is definitely bent.

 

It bent because physics is a bitch.... mass times acceleration equals force ma=F and you were spinning that heavy weight pretty fast when it let go....luckily it didnt comne up through the hood or into an oncoming car

 

Correct