Is that rear alternator strap really necessary?
 

Someone at some point in the past hacked on my rear alternator bracket. It doesnt line up even close to the front one. Makes belt adjustment, which should be simple, an ardous task.

Is the rear strap honestly necessary? Didnt the manual steering cars only have the single top strap? And starting in 70 isnt there only one? The Butler kits are also single strap. Im sure there was a reason they did it, but man that thing is a pain in my butt. Seems like it may have just been overkill

I’m even thinking about welding a small flat bar onto the front strap so if could have a second WP mounting point just for feel goods and then ditching the back strap

In building these cars GM had it calculated down to the last cent each and every part that goes into one of it's cars, and that is including the cost of labor. In GM school the teachers told us that due to cost GM does not randomly put parts onto these cars unless there is a good reason for each & every part. Even if it may not make sense to you, there is a good reason that the top alternator adjuster on a Pontiac V8 with power steering has 2 support brackets.

If it were my car I would put those 2 brackets back like on top like they are suppose to be.

X2 w Pete. When I bought my car it only had the front strap on it and I ran it like that for a few months w no issues until somebody pointed it out to me. I have run it with the rear strap also ever since then. The 70 A body is a totally different setup, not sure about the F body.

Same here and had no issues. My issues only started when I added that back strap.

Its changes on the F Body too. Because the previous design was dumb...… You have to mess with your alternator to change the thermostat. I agree the engineers do things for reasons, but they also get rid of them for reasons too.


if I have to spend money on it I think Im just going to buy one of the aftermarket kits.

If I recall, there are 3 different front straps and 2 rear ones with power steering, not including tripower or manual steering. If you don't match the correct year front with the rear you will have strap alignment issues. There are 2 installed straps to minimize vibration problems, mainly fatigue cracking of mounting parts. 70 A, G, & B cars simplified it with the one big "hand" bracket that covered the alternator. 71+ used completely different set. Most engineers are pretty smart and know what they are doing and why.