[many birds]

My power steering belt broke recently. I bought a new one (Oreillys’s 7512) and it’s too long. It seems the old steering belt was rubbing on the fan pulley. When looked at the pulleys, they aren’t lined up. The pulleys and the belts on them are the way I got the car. What do I need to do to get this to work right? I’m not sure why there a 3 pulleys on the crankshaft.

The car is a ‘69 firebird, the engine is a ‘68 400. Pic attached of the misaligned pulleys.

[Tom Vaught]

Three pulleys typically means your system is driving the Water Pump/Fan, the Alternator, a Power Steering pump, and a A/C compressor. Those are driven by three belts.

The photo says the the car does not have A/C.
The third grooved pulley is typically for the A/C Compressor.

Remove the crank pulleys and put on the shelf the one closest to the timing cover.
That is the one for a engine with A/C installed. Then your pulley alignment should be much better.

Tom V.

[Kenth]

1968 Pontiac V8´s have a one year only mix of 1967 and earlier coolant pump and 1969 and later crank harmonic damper with matching brackets and pulleys.
Adding the mix with 1969 brackets and pulleys will put pulleys offset.
To fully cure this issue you will have to use a 1969 or later timing cover and all the correct brackets and pulleys for 1969 400.
This will also put the fan blades in correct position half way into the fan shroud.

[Tom Vaught]

Missed that about the 68 pulleys, thanks Kenth.

Tom V.

[1funride]

See if some of this information helps you. You can also shim the accessory pulleys if you have a mis-match of parts.

[Tom Vaught]

I SAY AGAIN, THE PONTIAC FEAD (FRONT END ACCESSORY DRIVE) ENGINEER SHOULD
HAVE BEEN FIRED (for constantly changing stuff, each year).

Tom V.

[78w72]

its hard to tell from the angle of that pic which way things are out of alignment, maybe post a better pic straight on from the side? but without changing timing covers & brackets you could just shim the alt or p/s pump with some washers in the needed location to get the alignment better & not break belts. same for the fan, should be able to buy a longer spacer or make your own from a flat piece of steel cut to shape & drilled or shim it with some flat hardened washers.

i wasnt aware of the mix match of parts for 1968s, doing what kenth said above is the better way to remedy the issue but much more work required & expensive, shimming where needed might be all thats needed.

[Murf]

Like everyone else is saying, there are so many possible mismatch opportunities with Pontiacs. It almost looks to me like you have a short water pump & need a regular length one. Looks like the W/P pulley needs to come forward so P/S is on the front groove & Alt is on the back groove but the picture is making it hard to tell for sure. Side shot would really help.

Murf

[grandam1979]

Hard to tell from picture but it looks like you might have the wrong water pump pulley? Can you get a part number off of it?

[many birds]

I know the parallax messes with the pic. I’ll try to get better pics and part numbers later this evening.

When I’m looking at the car, the water pump pulley seems too far back toward the engine. And yet it’s not far back enough to completely clear the power steering pulley. The belt rubs slightly on the side of the water pump pulley—I think that is what caused the first belt to fail. The water pump pulley has 2 grooves on it. The groove closer to the engine is unused??

I also noticed that there was very little/nearly no room to get the belt on the crank pulley. It was extremely closed the subframe cross member. Removing the third pulley on the crank will definitely improve that problem.

Changing the timing cover and water pump to the later design is probably the best fix, but it’s gonna be a PITA and cost around $250 in parts. I was hoping for a cheaper solution. If a longer snouted water pump can fix this, that would be simple. But I don’t want to dump money on an 8 bolt pump and find it didn’t work and still have to go back and change the timing cover and pump to 11 bolt.

[many birds]

Here’s the water pump pulley number

[grandam1979]

Looking at that picture better the alternator belt goes on the rear groove on the water and crank pulleys. This is a picture of a 68 GTO we put together the pulleys should look more like this.

[grandam1979]

That pulley is for 75-79 from what I can find.

[many birds]

I did a little research on the firstgen site. It seems that the shorter 8 bolt pump is supposed to be paired with a 2-inch pulley. The pulley on there now is 2-5/8 inch in height. I’m thinking a shorter pulley might solve this problem without a pump and timing cover change. However I’m still not certain about the extra crank pulley and how much effect removing it will have.

[grandam1979]

It’s only about .100 thick it should be fine but if you can find a extra support ring that would replace the a/c pulley. Or just leave it it’s not hurting anything.

[Tom Vaught]

Originally Posted by grandam1979

It’s only about .100 thick it should be fine but if you can find a extra support ring that would
replace the a/c pulley. Or just leave it it’s not hurting anything.

Agree. Thickness loss will not be noticeable.
Also agree that all of the mounts for the alternator & P/S had the alternator belt behind the P/S belt.

Tom V.

["QUICK-SILVER"]

Originally Posted by many birds

The water pump pulley has 2 grooves on it. The groove closer to the engine is unused??

Alternator and power steering both go around the water pump pulley. Just a couple inches difference in belt length between the two.

Clay

PS does your frame bracketts, for the motor mounts, have a leg/brace that bolts to the cross member and back up to the rear of the mount bracket.

Engines will settle down low without the extra brace. BTDT

[many birds]

Originally Posted by "QUICK-SILVER"

PS does your frame bracketts, for the motor mounts, have a leg/brace that bolts to the cross member and back up to the rear of the mount bracket.

Engines will settle down low without the extra brace. BTDT

What does this bracket look like? Below is a pic of my driver side mount

["QUICK-SILVER"]

Originally Posted by many birds

What does this bracket look like? Below is a pic of my driver side mount

You'll have to look at it from underneath.

The plate the mount is bolted to hangs off the back side of the cross member.

Seems like its not much more than a leg that goes from the back of that plate down to the cross member... Like a shelf brace.

Been too long to be exact
Clay