Reply to "alternator bracket"

Oz,

I made my own bracket to relocate the alternator down next to the A/C compressor. I did it by cuttting the 'u' shaped piece that the bottom alternator through bolt goes through from the A/C bracket. (You can grind what is left on the A/C bracket flat if you wish.)

You can use a flat piece of 1/8 inch steel about 3 inches wide, and maybe 10-12 inches long (measure for proper legnth). On the very end of it I drilled 2 holes through the steel plate and the bottom alt bracket that was cut from the A/C bracket. If you were to hold the steel strip across your hands, the two holes would be to the far left, one on top of the other (use sense in spacing the holes). This would put the alt cross bolt perpendicular to the steel strip. The alt bracket will mount upside-down underneath the steel strip at that end with the welded nut on the pulley side (front). If your cross bolt nut isn't weled to the bracket, make sure you assemble it with the nut in front or once The alt is in the car, you won't be able to get it out without removing the whole upper alt bracket.

You will have to determine how far you may need to space the alt bracket down from the steel strip (if at all). You will have to get it low enough so that the pulley doesn't hit the firewall, and leave yourself enough room between the pulley and firewall to get the belt on and off. Use 'button head' bolts, and put the heads up from under the alt bracket. I had to grind my alt slightly where the bolt goes through for clearance.

Can you see it so far? The alt will be hanging upside-down at the far left end of the steel strip with the pulley facing you, through bolt in from the back.

Next, place the assmebly over the A/C bracket with the alt pulley lining up with the rear groove of the A/C pulley. I had a rotary A/C compressor, so I drilled 2 holes through the steel strip where the 2 front A/C compressor mounting bolts went through the A/C bracket. These 2 bolt holes will be across the steel strip lengthwise toward the right side of the steel strip. What I did was lay the bracket over the bolts, estimate where they were, and drilld two oversized holes. This leaves room for error on the guess, and it gives you a bit of adjustment with the alt bracket. I had to space the strip bracket up to clear the angled support on the A/C bracket (you can grind either bracket for a better fit). You will have to determine what hardware to use: longer bolts, studs and extended nuts, etc. I used a combination of these.

When I had all of this completed and bolted in place, I took the curved, adjustable stock upper alt bracket and snugly bolted the adjustment side to the alt mounting ear, now hanging upside-down at the bottom of the alt. The rotary A/C compressor had 4 mounting ears in a square pattern located just behind the pulley. The top 2 were used to mount the A/C compressor to the A/C bracket, and the bottom 2 were unused. I used the bottom mounting ear near the alt to bolt the stationary end of the curved alt bracket to. I think this one needed to be spaced a bit too. If you have a different A/C compressor, you may have to come up with another solution in mounting that last piece of the puzzle.

Of course, you can modify this plan any way that works best for you. The above way worked flawlessly in my first Pantera for years. It is a permanent modification. It enabled me to execute a remotely mounted electric water pump system, and made a completely flat firewall with my Cleveland possible!

I did this many years ago, so I'm going by memory. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the alt bracketry, or the electric water pump setup (which I regret), but I do have one of the flat 2 piece firewall that I made.

I hope all of this helps you. It was very easy to do.

Michael