How are you supposed to tension the belt? AC & smog delete

[5.0ina66]

Got an 89LX that's been V8 swapped. Got to looking at it this afternoon (first time I've seen it in daylight) and noticed that it looks like they ripped out the AC and smog and just short-belt'ed it. Whoever it was, they didn't do a real great job, there isn't much belt touching the water pump pulley and the belt squeals like hell at anything but idle. Plus, it's already getting glazed from slipping so much. Yay.

It's about that time that I noticed that not only is there not much junk on the front of the motor, but there also seems to be NO TENSIONERS at ALL. That has got me wondering 2 things:

a) How are you supposed to be able to tension the belt with it set up like this.
b) The belt routing doesn't look like it could ever work right like this, can you REALLY get by without a tensioner or idler to route the belt around?

How is it supposed to be done?

Thanks
--Kyle

 

[mob]

Would you rather have more junk on the front of the motor?

Is the alternator on the factory bracket, or is there a tension bar connected to the water pump? You woul really have to get a picture so we can see what your working with or its impossible to tell. Idk how you can do a junk job on deleting a/c and smog, its a pretty straight foward job.

 

[BigDanTheMan]

they could have put it on by taking on and off a pulley. what if you got a bigger pulley somewhere along the line. the accessory wouldn't spin as fast, but at least it won't spin out.

 

[Mustang5L5]

There is a right and wrong way to delete the A/C and smog. Sounds like your setup is the wrong way. You'll need to purchase the ford racing A/C delete kit and also then install a factory alt bracket and tensioner. This is how Ford does it on the non-A/C cars.

As you can see, some guys try to do it quick and easy and it causes other issues vs doing it right the first time with the right parts

 

[BigDanTheMan]

 

[Mustang5L5]

That pretty much sums it u[p

 

[Maryland Stang]

You can always use a March belt tensioner. It's clean and simple. In this pic you can see I've removed the compressor and was able to leave the P/S pump down low, out of the way. I've had ZERO issues with this setup.

 

[BigDanTheMan]

the frp kit is just a braket that moves the power stearing pump up near to the A/C just to be clear.

 

[5.0ina66]

That pretty much sums it u[p

Yeah, to tell you the truth, I wasn't expecting something as concise and complete as that. Thanks for the diagram Dan; after looking at that, I think I know exactly what we need to do now.

Looks like a new tensioner and an AC delete kit are what's next...after we fix the big leak in the T5.

I've got to find time to work on this car when it's actually daylight so I can take some pics, some of the jerry-rigging we're finding is turning out to be world class. I'd have had the stupid thing fixed this afternoon if the rope they had attached to the hood latch hadn't snapped and seized up the latch.

 

[Brian992V]

Here is my car with FRPP a/c delete and a stock tensioner

 

[68stang351]

There is a better way to route the belt than in the last example. If you route the belt from the alt. to the crank (instead of the w/p) like the example above it, there is less of a chance for the belt to rub itself between the tensioner and w/p.

 

[Grn92LX]

Yup^^

 

[Brian992V]

The alt to crank routing is the best way by far. Mine is routed from alt to w/p from the previous owner and I'm too cheap to buy another 1. lol

 

[BigDanTheMan]

it looks like you get more surface area contact with the pulleys from that diagram, but I am sure it is negligible and should be a second concern to belt on belt contact like 68stang points out.