I was told I need a new harmonic balancer when I install my Vintage Air II system. Is that true?
Also, where do I find a triple pulley system? I would be running the fan, the power steering and the a/c. Or can I get by with a double pulley ?
Thanks for the help.

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'64 El Camino
'00 DBG Vette
57 Harley Hummer

Did the person that told you that explain why? There are bolt on pulleys that would probably bolt right to your balancer.

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Leo Paugh
Maryland Chevelle Club #017
A.C.E.S.#3731
progress has little to do with speed, but lots to do with direction.
Maryland Chevelle Club (http://www.chevelles.net/mcc/mcc.htm)

I talked with Vintage Air 2 days ago about belt routing, etc. They didn't say anything about a new balancer. I DO need a 3 groove crank pulley, a 2 groove ps pulley and a 2 groove wp pulley. They told me the ps belt was closest to the engine alone. Next was the ac belt which ran to the ps pump, the compressor and the fan. Last was the fan belt which routes to the fan and alternator. BTW, this is for a small block with the long water pump. Don't know if the short water pump or big block is the same.

Until I find all the pulleys, I have one belt that runs from crank to ps to compressor to crank. Works, but would hate for it to break. No power steering! Anybody see a problem with this temporary setup?

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My Elky (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/djw69elky09.jpg)
Arkansas Classic Chevelle Club (http://www.ac3online.net/index.html)
My Webpage (http://www.ac3online.net/djw/)

Danny Wooldridge
Member #1129
Aces #5044

[This message has been edited by djw69elky (edited 07-03-2002).]

I think that with just one belt around all 3 pulleys there will be a lot less suface contact between the belt and the P/S pulley since it's in the middle. If it doesn't slip or squeal while steering I guess you're ok.

Had BobFmTyler look at his factory air small block 69. The a/c belt does NOT run to the fan/wp pulley on his. Guess the guy from Vintage Air was wrong. This means a single goove fan/wp pulley, a double groove ps pulley and a triple groove crank pulley are needed.

"cares"...I found my triple groove crank pulley at a local wrecking yard. Don't see them in the Ground Up or Original Parts Group catalog. OPG does show chromed ones for 69-77 small blocks but not for 64-68. You could do as I am presently and get by with the double, IF the VA compressor lines up with the ps pulley on a 64.

I'm running a pulley setup of a 71 Monte Carlo (I think) which had A/C and P/S. This is installed on my smallblock '69 Chevelle with Vintage Air. My car has power steering and A/C. I'm using a long water pump. The pulleys I grabbed off the Monte work great. There's a 3 groove crank pulley, a 2 groove PS pulley, and a double groove water pump pulley. These pulleys are a dead match for the setup on my 77 El Camino also, so it appears GM used these for a good number of years.

The crank pulley has two innner grooves (closest to motor) are the same diameter, but the outer groove is a larger diameter.

The water pump pulley has a larger diameter on the groove closest to the fan, and a smaller diameter in the rear.

Here's how my belts are ran (front to back-- furthest out on crank pulley back to closest to motor):

Belt #1 goes around the largest (outermost) groove on crank, largest groove on water pump, around alternator.

Belt #2 goes around the smaller 2nd groove in on the crank pulley, the smaller diameter groove on the waterpump pulley (closest to motor) and around the power steering pump.

Belt #3 goes around the innermost crank groove, touches the bottom of the PS pump pulley, goes around the A/C compressor, then goes back to the crank. It clears the top of the PS pump pulley.

If you want pics, let me know. The pulleys work great with the stock alternator bracket and the Alan Grove compressor bracket Vintage Air supplied with my kit 7 years ago. Sooner or later I'll upgrade to a billet bracket/pulley/serpentine conversion, but this setup has worked great for 7 years.

[This message has been edited by Gokou (edited 07-05-2002).]

If you have pictures please send them to me. The more research I do the more I think this will be a 'winter project'. I want to replace my radiator (any recommendations?). I plan on adding a high flow water pump and then installing the a/c.
I'll have to suffer the heat when I take my Harley Hummer in the back of the El Camino to Sturgis in August.
Thanks for all the help... bynes@attbi.com


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'64 El Camino
'00 DBG Vette
57 Harley Hummer

FWIW, it took me about 25 hours of work to install my Vintage Air unit on my non-A/C car. I did the job when I was 16. One 100 degrees + summer in my black interior/black vinyl top car made me decide that A/C would be a good thing. The hour count also takes into account cleaning up under the dash and installing all new insulation (dynamat) and a new firewall pad, and some other miscellaneous cosmetic work such as repainting the glove compartment area of my dash. I didn't do a rush job either, all my wiring is neat and bundled. If you do just the A/C install it would probably take 15-16 hours of work.

I do have a suggestion though: vintage air includes a block-off plate for the gaping hole that will be left when you remove the factory heater box. Their blockoff plate is molded plastic. It works, but doesn't look very pretty. I used it until last year when I had the motor out, then I rolled the lip on the firewall and fabricated a nice piece of sheet aluminum to cover the hole. Looks SO much better than the vintage air plastic piece, and it only took me about an hour to do. It bolts to the firewall using existing holes left from the factory heater box. I installed rivnuts into the firewall so it's really easy to take the cover off and on-- my MSD box and coil are also bolted to this cover. If you really want to go all-out you can weld in a patch, smooth it and repaint it, but my bolt-over cover looks quite good. It also allows easy access to the back of the underdash unit to get to the heater hose fittings and A/C line fittings.

I'll get some pictures of the pulley setup later tonight and post them here.

Gokou.....you're right about the VA block-off plate. Looks kinda cheap. After talking to Daytona Jeff about his, I reinstalled the factory heater/blower cover. Routed the hoses through the blower end. Looks really close to stock now. Mine was an extra pain since it was a non/ac elky with vent windows. NO holes in dash. Had to switch bezels and cut a hole by the glove box for the vent.

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My Elky (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/djw69elky09.jpg)
Arkansas Classic Chevelle Club (http://www.ac3online.net/index.html)
My Webpage (http://www.ac3online.net/djw/)

Danny Wooldridge
Member #1129
Aces #5044

OK... here are the pictures of the pulleys and belt routing. The belt routing is exactly as GM specifies for my 1977 El Camino, which uses the same pulleys. If you want I can get you the lengths of belts I used. Keep in mind mine is a long water pump setup-- if you use a short water pump, everything might be different.

The basics:

-1969 Chevelle (originally a non-A/C car)
-Small block
-Vintage Air A/C conversion with provided Alan Grove bracket
-Power steering

The PS pump is still on the factory bracket, as is the alternator. I did not have to shim anything-- everything lined up great. The pulleys are off a ~1971 Monte Carlo which had A/C and Power Steering. I used the water pump, crank, and power steering pulleys. The alternator retains the stock single groove pulley, and the a/c pulley is what came on the compressor from Vintage Air.

Here are the pictures:

Picture #1 (http://home.attbi.com/~swedishchef/stuff/ForumStuff/pulleys1.jpg)

Picture #2 (http://home.attbi.com/~swedishchef/stuff/ForumStuff/pulleys2.jpg)

Picture #3 (http://home.attbi.com/~swedishchef/stuff/ForumStuff/pulleys3.jpg)

Picture #4 (http://home.attbi.com/~swedishchef/stuff/ForumStuff/pulleys4.jpg)

Hope this helps. If you want other pictures, let me know.

[This message has been edited by Gokou (edited 07-06-2002).]

Great shots, Gokou! Thanks!

Not a problem.

Sooner or later I'll do the whole serpentine belt conversion with billet brackets and pulleys, but I have better things to spend my money on-- right now my current setup works great and money would be better spent on the paint and bodywork fund.

I can't decide if I want to go with a March, Street and Performance, or Concept One setup...

Gokou.... great pictures.... I'll print them at work tomorrow... I will be contacting you when I get started on this 'winter' project.
Thanks for the post.

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'64 El Camino
'00 DBG Vette
57 Harley Hummer