PS Belt Contacts TA WP - Live With it? FlowKooler WP? Auto Parts Store WP?

Here is my 72 GS455, the P/S pump bracket is all metal.
I believe the metal bracket sits lower in the engine.

 

Side question for Briz. Is your PS pump bracket chromed, just polished aluminum or painted silver??

 

Thsts the 71+ style,..its a better setup but not correct fir a 67/70,.. if memory serves me correctly it doesn't jive with the 5143 crank pulley

 

Thanks 71gs3504sp. It sure does look like your large (compared to mine) pump sits lower than mine. I think I'll add that bracket to my wish list of parts needed to convert my set-up to the 1971-72 "long" water pump/pulleys/fan shroud combo.

I went out to my garage a few minutes ago and removed the bolt from the slotted hole in the steel PS pump bracket and swung the pump inboard as far as I could (see attached photo). As that point the joggle in the rear steel bracket hit the backside of the aluminum bracket. That was also the point the head of the removed bolt would contact the joggle in the forward steel bracket. It would be necessary for me to grind away a little bit of the rear surface of the aluminum bracket and allow one side of the bolt head ride up on the joggle in the front steel bracket. BTW - My style of PS pump may be a little smaller than your pump because it still had a (very) small distance to go before it contacted the aluminum bracket.

I also noticed that even with the pump in the position shown in the attached photo, the belt didn't pull away from the WP (I used a longer new belt and applied pressure on it by hand to take up the slack for this test. That makes me think that my pump may already be positioned as low about as I can get it.

Something tells me that I'll be giving my credit card number to the folks at flowkoolerwaterpumps.com tomorrow. Bummer.

Thanks again, gentlemen.

 

Not sure what happened, but the quote and text I added to support the "PS Belt -vs- Water Pump - No Pulley - Zoom.jpg" just disappeared from my previous post when I submitted it and refused to be reinstated. So, I'll try it again...

Ahhh, if only that would work. My belt is rubbing on the body (reservoir?) of the water pump, not one of the fins (see attached photo). I don't think I can grind enough aluminum away from that location to provide decent clearance for the belt without breaking through to the interior of the pump.

 

Its got to be the larger body of the TA pump causing this,...

Another idea b4 shelling out money for the flowkooler

You can pull the ps pulley off and get a thrust washer from ACE and move the pulley out .090
Chances are the belt isn't "perfect" in line now anyway. Or even a 3 small stainless washers behind the aluminum bracket would do the same thing

Worst case you have to space all the pulleys out,..the stock crank stiffening ring could be placed behind the crank pulley,..an Allstar wp pulley shim kit is like $15 and then a thrustcwaaher behind the Alt pulley or washers behind the bracket on that one as well

And you're good to go

 

I had all my brackets either chromed or powder coated. That one is chrome

 

I've had this rub for about 8 years on my TA pump. Give it a few hundred miles and it will just wear off the edge of the belt in short order and you can worry about something else. For the money spent on the pump I was not going to replace it

 

Dan, I just did the very same swap - 72 gs350 to a 455. I used the 350 ps bracket, I used the 350 air conditioning brackets, I sourced the same crank pulley that you did, I had to source the correct water pump pulley - both of these pullies came off a 74 455. I think your issue is the short water pump, I used the 71,72 long pump, everything lined up perfect. I’ll post some pics, or just go back to my econo build 455 thread. One of the members recently posted the different part numbers for the pullies.

 

Here are some pics

 

Dan, there is a good thread on 2nd page “pulleys and brackets” Rottweiler replied with some part numbers, years.

 

Dan, looking at your ps bracket, if you used your 350 bracket, the pump should sit lower, avoid that interference with the water pump. Your ps pump looks high, mine mounts much lower

 

Dan, looking at your ps bracket, if you used your 350 bracket, the pump should sit lower, avoid that interference with the water pump. Your ps pump looks high

 

Thanks for the responses. Good information.

I'm going to back off this project until tomorrow so I can take care of some of my "domestic duties". I'll get back to you then.

 

there is no "issue" with using the short pump when you have the correct parts which Dan does,..its the larger body of the hi volume TA pump thats the issue

 

But while we're here the 71+ BB pullies are 777 and 778,. This works with the steel low low mount 71+ ps setup and the long pump

 

Like Ethan said "use the correct parts " your car was a 350 so use the 350 pullies and brackets. My 69 Riv had a 430 from factory that had a 72 455 swapped in, the brackets and pullies were retained and everything lined up as it should. If I were to use the 72 stuff since it all came from a totally different style car nothing would line up or fit properly. That being said I did put the smaller diameter billet aluminum pullies from TA on and the only issue I had was I had to buy shorter belts, but everything still libed up.

 

Thanks Ken,

You got me thinking... After fitting various thickness washers behind the crankshaft pulley and WP pulley, and between the PS pump and cylinder head (as suggested by Hugger), I found that approx. .030" spacers pushed the pulleys forward enough to create a very slight gap between the WP body and PS belt. So, not wanting to deal with washers, spacers, etc, I very carefully ground/filed a very small amount of aluminum off of the WP housing at and near the belt contact point. I stopped removing metal when a gap large enough to show a very thin sliver of light from a flashlight positioned behind the former contact point was achieved.

I understand that the belt will still at least intermittently contact the WP while the engine is running, but there should be a lot less wear and tear on the belt now. Probably less belt noise, too.

Thanks 1969RIVI,

After I pull the 350 out of my Skylark (and the 455 is still on the stand), I'll trial-fit all of the pullies and brackets currently installed on the 350 on the 455. Who knows? That may be the easiest fix of all.

All,

Thanks for all of the help. I'd probably still be spending money, switching pulleys and brackets, etc if you all didn't come through for me.
I'll post progress reports as I go. Maybe my experiences will help someone down the line who's planning to upgrade from a SBB to a BBB .