Everyone please read this and help figure this out

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

OK...my buddy's GT needed a new power steering pump. OK, so he has another pump and bracket so we take that one in for the core charge, and put the new pump and pully on and then just swap it out with the pump/bracket on the car.

So, to sum that up, the car went from one pump/bracket to another pump/bracket. Follow me?


OK, we put it all back together and now the belt is 3 inches too long.

We put the belt that came off of it and it was just way too big. We measured pulleys and they're the same, and it can only bolt on one way.


Were there differences in the brackets from one year to the next? That's the only thing we can think of it being. He went ahead and bought a shorter belt so everything is ok, it just totally baffled us and we can't figure out why. We even measured from the center line of the pump shaft to the bolts that hold the bracket on and they're the same...it just doesn't make sense.

 

[Scorcher2005]

Is the belt tensioner still working?

 

[capri debris]

If the measurements are the same from centerline of the PS pump pulley and the bracket mounting bolts on both units... then Yoda says the only logical explanation is that you routed the belt a different way than it was before you removed it.

 

[PUNISHER RACING]

belt routing is wrong!

 

[BK_CAULEY]

belt routing is wrong!

beat me to it.

 

[Foxfan88]

ive done the same thing with mis routing the belt. lol i was freaking out about it. then i figured out what it was..

 

[SMOKEDYA]

yeap belt is on wrong, and if you have the water pump turning the wrong way from the belt being routed wrong that might not be a good thing either! The only change was in 94/95 then it's diffrent. When doing the belt routing i ALWAYS TAKE A PIC!Man belt routing is a PITA. good luck and ya better figure out the original belt and use it! peace


john

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Guys i can assure you, the belt routing is right. We even went so far as to compare it to my car and i know mine is right. We've been through everything and it just doesn't make sense at all. The belt that was on it was so much longer that the tensioner didn't even engage the belt and was all the way "down". The only thing that it could be is that there are small differences in the shape of the brackets and they're enough to make the belt length different.

On my car i had a similar problem but i know the cause...i put my 351W heads on and i guess the bolt holes in the heads are in different spots...everything bolted up ok (some holes were different size bolts though) but i think the holes made everything closer together causing the belt to be too big. With his car we're just totally baffled. We both stared at it for a good 15 minutes and then another buddy came and looked at it and it's thrown us all for a loop.

One thing we thought of is how the pump can be clocked around in the bracket if you just unbolted it and turned it...but then the fill neck would be way over to the side and that wouldn't be right. The pump is in the same position as mine. He went from a 72.5 inch belt all the way down to a 69.5 inch belt. All we can think of is that the brackets must be different somehow because that's the only thing that's changed.

 

[Fett]

Guys i can assure you, the belt routing is right. We even went so far as to compare it to my car and i know mine is right. We've been through everything and it just doesn't make sense at all. The belt that was on it was so much longer that the tensioner didn't even engage the belt and was all the way "down". The only thing that it could be is that there are small differences in the shape of the brackets and they're enough to make the belt length different.

On my car i had a similar problem but i know the cause...i put my 351W heads on and i guess the bolt holes in the heads are in different spots...everything bolted up ok (some holes were different size bolts though) but i think the holes made everything closer together causing the belt to be too big. With his car we're just totally baffled. We both stared at it for a good 15 minutes and then another buddy came and looked at it and it's thrown us all for a loop.

One thing we thought of is how the pump can be clocked around in the bracket if you just unbolted it and turned it...but then the fill neck would be way over to the side and that wouldn't be right. The pump is in the same position as mine. He went from a 72.5 inch belt all the way down to a 69.5 inch belt. All we can think of is that the brackets must be different somehow because that's the only thing that's changed.

The belt routing may be "correct"....but is that how it was on the car before? My buddy and I have two different belt routes on our 5.0s..it's just how I ended up routing mine. So with the same exact pulleys in the same exact positions, we have two different length belts.

Take his belt and route it on your car the way yours is run, see if it is still too long.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Pictures??

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Yeah the routing is being done the same. I don't know how to say it without sounding like a prick, but we're not rookies, ya know? lol.

His setup is identical to mine except he has under drive pullies so i can't use his belt on my car, but we both have FMS AC delete kits for the power steering and both have no smog, so we have the same belt path, just different pullies. (and no the pulleys never got switched during this ordeal).

I could probabl get pics but i don't know if it would help....you can't tell by looking at the brackets that they're any different.

 

[Red9250]

Someone already asked......but.....

 

[SVT32VDOHC]

beat me to it.

Me too!