[zookpr]

Looking for advice here. Who is the best source for a pulley kit like this for a BBC with long water pump? Need the pulleys and brackets and I haven't been able to find anyone that does a complete kit so unless you go out and order all the components separate it seems no one has one. Not that I can't order the parts separate except then it seems I would have to order from multiple vendors which means multiple shipping and border charges.

View attachment 393279

Since those are painted brackets and use v-belts, what's the problem with factory '69 and up GM BBC production brackets and pulleys, a well as standard listed belt sizes? The alternator is close to the engine and less likely to throw that belt.

 

[zookpr]

^^ Many times GM gets things rights since anything less is generally a warranty issue when the vehicles were new. Another great thing is that if OP wants to high rev, there are complete deep groove pulley sets as used on 396, 427, and 454 factory solid lifter muscle cars from '69-'71 L78 - LS6. Can't say that I've ever thrown a belt on the above factory set up, even with standard pulleys.

 

[zookpr]

I was throwing belts right and left at only 5,500rpm. On mine, the donor truck had A/C and I don't, so it wasn't exactly factory. There is a long stretch between the crank pulley and the alternator. and that's where the trouble started. Could easily see the belt start flapping when revving the engine. The worst part was that the alternator belt would then throw the PS belt and leave me with no fan. A couple of times at the side of the road I put a spare on the alternator and just muscled through without power steering until I added the other belt when back home.

Must be the year Suburban you used. The alt bracket on mine is very similar to the '69-72' passenger style so the alt was in the same place. The '69-'72 style have either no hole, or a round hole, instead of the oval hole in the upper bracket. Upper bracket attaches to water pump and intake. See attached pic from decades ago when I initially installed the 454. I switched to a short pump and went with deep groove pulleys. The pre '69 alternator is mounted on the driver's side and hangs wayyyyyy out on a long upper bracket. Even have the '66 idler pulley on the passenger side so the WP/fan belt load is balanced and will no be lost should the alternator belt come off. Has not been driven yet. Belt alignment is critical, even a small misalignment can cause issues. On the Suburban truck set up I've came across a few where the belts were misaligned because the balancer was not fully seated against the lower timing sprocket. On one I even found almost an entire pushrod INSIDE the oil pump pickup, broken in to small pieces that fit into the oval opening in pickup.

 

[zookpr]

Funny that you needed t shim a factory bracket, and two of them. Maybe the balancer was not fully seated. The alternator brackets on mine in the old picture, as well as the engine, was out of a '75 3/4 ton Suburban. I do not have PS.

 

[zookpr]

Curious about that deep groove alt. pulley. Is that an OEM LS6 pulley or aftermarket? Thanks.
Larry.

Good eye, didn't notice that. In general you can't use factory GM deep groove pulleys mixed with standard groove pulleys. The deep groove pulley have a wider groove to obtain the depth and this shifts the centerline of the groove outward compared to standard depth groove pulleys. This become more obvious with double and triple deep grove pulleys as the width effect is additive and each successive groove become further misaligned compared to standard groove pulleys.

Below is an early (short WP) GM BBC deep groove crankshaft pulley compared to an aftermarket standard groove pulley showing the difference in groove width. Looking at the first groove, nearest balancer mounting surface you can see that the inward side of the groove matches, but the outer groove face is further offset compared to the standard groove pulley, therefore the grove center line is off by one-half the difference in the groove width, DG vs. standard.

May not be true with an aftermarket DG alternator pulley, but will be if the pulley is a GM LS6 or other SHP pulley.