Okay Friends & Fellow Countymen,
My 68 Coupe started life/came to me with factory, or possibly dealer installed, in dash A/C. Shortly after getting the car, I did a Sanden compressor/134A conversion, which didn't work very well, and then parked the car for 9+ years for an engine swap and various other upgrades. I have recently spent a pile of $$$ on new A/C stuff and now I can't figure out how to do a belt setup and my budget is cooked! Here's how it was and what has been changed.
It had:
1>3-groove crank pulley, 2-groove water pump pulley, lower "anti-slap" non-adjustable A/C "dog-leg" idler pulley, a non-adjustable A/C compressor and a smog/air pump on a bracket shared by the alternator.
2>Groove closest to engine, belt went around crank, water pump, alternator
3>Next groove-empty for, hopefully, soon to be installed Borgeson power (Girlie-Man) steering/crank, water pump, power steering pump
4>Next groove had belt around crank, smog/air pump, A/C compressor and lower (underneath A/C compressor) idler pulley. Adjustment/belt tensioning was accomplished at the smog/air pump.
We now have:
1>All the same pulleys, except the smog/air pump and large, ugly bracket shared by smog pump and alternator have been eliminated/replaced by a simple alternator bracket.
2>I now have no way to get the outer belt from the crank up and around the snout (no groove) of the water pump pulley and over to the A/C compressor
3>So I went ahead and bought an adjustable upper idler pulley for like $60, but it came as just the pulley and the plate. The mounting bracket, that may or may not fit/fix my issue is another $100 +/-. I'm running out of $$$ to just throw at parts for testing!
What I am hoping is that some good Samaritan(s) here might be willing to send me some idler pulleys/brackets/etc (on my shipping dime, of course) to help me come up with a solution. Even if you don't want to permanently "give up" or sell the parts, I would gladly ship back what I don't use or you don't want to sell, once I determine the correct parts needed. I will gladly buy what's needed, but simply can't afford to just throw money at the problem to end up with a pile of pricey paperweights! Part of the problem is that idler pulley and belt setups appear to have been changed from year to year and even throughout each model year, especially in 67-68. It also seems that 68-69 and possibly 70 are the most similar to each other for the small blocks but the differences are compounded by the change in mid 68 from 289 to 302. I really need some help here.
Please Help If You Can,
Gene
My 68 Coupe started life/came to me with factory, or possibly dealer installed, in dash A/C. Shortly after getting the car, I did a Sanden compressor/134A conversion, which didn't work very well, and then parked the car for 9+ years for an engine swap and various other upgrades. I have recently spent a pile of $$$ on new A/C stuff and now I can't figure out how to do a belt setup and my budget is cooked! Here's how it was and what has been changed.
It had:
1>3-groove crank pulley, 2-groove water pump pulley, lower "anti-slap" non-adjustable A/C "dog-leg" idler pulley, a non-adjustable A/C compressor and a smog/air pump on a bracket shared by the alternator.
2>Groove closest to engine, belt went around crank, water pump, alternator
3>Next groove-empty for, hopefully, soon to be installed Borgeson power (Girlie-Man) steering/crank, water pump, power steering pump
4>Next groove had belt around crank, smog/air pump, A/C compressor and lower (underneath A/C compressor) idler pulley. Adjustment/belt tensioning was accomplished at the smog/air pump.
We now have:
1>All the same pulleys, except the smog/air pump and large, ugly bracket shared by smog pump and alternator have been eliminated/replaced by a simple alternator bracket.
2>I now have no way to get the outer belt from the crank up and around the snout (no groove) of the water pump pulley and over to the A/C compressor
3>So I went ahead and bought an adjustable upper idler pulley for like $60, but it came as just the pulley and the plate. The mounting bracket, that may or may not fit/fix my issue is another $100 +/-. I'm running out of $$$ to just throw at parts for testing!
What I am hoping is that some good Samaritan(s) here might be willing to send me some idler pulleys/brackets/etc (on my shipping dime, of course) to help me come up with a solution. Even if you don't want to permanently "give up" or sell the parts, I would gladly ship back what I don't use or you don't want to sell, once I determine the correct parts needed. I will gladly buy what's needed, but simply can't afford to just throw money at the problem to end up with a pile of pricey paperweights! Part of the problem is that idler pulley and belt setups appear to have been changed from year to year and even throughout each model year, especially in 67-68. It also seems that 68-69 and possibly 70 are the most similar to each other for the small blocks but the differences are compounded by the change in mid 68 from 289 to 302. I really need some help here.
Please Help If You Can,
Gene
He is more than willing to work with me on my mix & match quest.
