Hello all

I am in the process of replacing my tired 283 with a new 350 crate motor. All has been going great until we got to the pulleys. We have a 66 Malibu wagon with factory AC and power steering. I bought a GM Aluminum short water pump and chrome 2 groove pulley for it, (measures out the same as the factory one) I bought a factory balancer, the 1966 3 groove factory pulley bolts to that, only the balancer pulley is shorter and looks as though it needs to stand off the balancer ?? The balancer grooves do not line up properly with the water pump pulley grooves.

The alternator in the factory location, (bolted to the exhaust manifold with the factory bracketry) does not seem to line up properly with the water pump pulley. The alternator pulley seems to be almost a full 1/4" back towards the firewall so the belt does not line up. It also wants to rub on the top side of the power steering pump.

As if this is not enough, the power steering pump belt rubs on the bottom side of the water pump pulley. I have looked at it over and over and cannot seem to figure out a solution. I have not changed anything and we are bolting it back together the way it came apart.

Am I totally missing something here or what ??? Any help or suggestions would be a great help and I look forward to posting pictures once it's all done. It looks great on the stand but I want it in the car !!!!

Thanks, :confused:

Show some pictues of you have now so we can see exactly what's going on.

What pulleys were on the car to start with? I have a 66 w/ 350 that I added Vintage air . I use a single and a double pulley on the crank and a double on water pump. Can you match your old 283 water pump to your new one? and the same with the other pulleys. Is your balance on all the way? did you use a balancer installation tool?

Bill

Hello again

Yes I did match the water pumps up, old and new. The water pump pulley is a 2 groove factory and the balancer pulley is the same, a single and a double, stacked. I did also use a balancer installation tool, Blue Point even.

It seems that the water pump pulley needs to be closer to the block to line up properly with the balancer pulleys.

I am going to become a full member so I can post pictures. I really appreciate all feedback, you never know when you may learn something new.

Keep those wrenches a' turnin !!!!

if the water pumps are the same height from gasket surface on the back to the face of the pulley/fan hub and the pulleys are the same depth to the inside surface that mates the hub on the water pump it''s hard to see how it could be wrong.

Are you dead sure the balancer is all the way on? How much room between the back of the WP pulley and the front of the water pump on the passenger side? It should be pretty close.

You could always pull the back off the water pump and have somebody press the hub on a little further if there's room for the pulley to go back a little.

You really can't assume the parts are right. Many moons have passed since this stuff was current. I bought a water pump a year or two ago, it was 1/4" too short, couldn't even get the pulley on. Had to visit the press and "adjust" it a little.

Thanks for the info. It turns out our buddy who owns a machine shop just old us the same thing about pressing the Water Pump shaft in. We basically need the shaft pressed in 1/4".

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I look forward to sharing pictures soon. The new engine is going back in tonight !!!